Cambria County fights population loss in little, big ways
The first of three reports on counties with declining populations.
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Reggie Canal began the process of moving from New York City to this Cambria County city this past July. The Queens native is a financial adviser who has spent much of his life working in the five boroughs as well as various places abroad. He was lured here for a number of reasons, including quality of life, affordability and the ability to start his own business in the main business district of a city, without breaking the bank.
The kicker, though, was the remote worker incentive, a pilot program that offered a cash motivation — $2,500 to be exact — to attract people to move to the county and take up residence.
The brainchild of local civic and business leaders with a boost from the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies, the program required applicants to agree to live here for a year.
“I have been to Taiwan, Hong Kong and France, and really none of them compares in terms of being a deeply connected community that is dedicated to making sure everyone is successful, not just the newcomers,” Mr. Canal said. “My friends ask me why I did it, then when they come visit, they get it.”
Amy Bradley, president and CEO of the Cambria Regional Chamber of Commerce, said the response for the grants from people like Mr. Canal — from all across the country — was so overwhelming that they had to cut off the application process when they received 40 within days: “Our objective was to see if we could attract people who either grew up here and were thinking about coming back or, even better, someone who never even heard of Cambria County but was ready for something new,” she said. Turned out they could. “That is not only a good thing, it is a much-needed breakthrough in how to help solve our declining population problem,” said Ms. Bradley, who is working with other local civic leaders to reverse Cambria County’s misfortune as one of Pennsylvania’s fastest-shrinking counties.
She said she knew her home county was headed in the wrong direction even before the recent census numbers came out, showing Cambria’s population had declined by 7.1% from 2010 to 2020. The numbers weren’t quite as bad as the Census Bureau had projected the year before, but Cambria still ranked eighth among counties in the state that saw the greatest rate of population decline.
“Our job as civic leaders is not to manage a decline, but to give people a compelling reason to come,” said Ms. Bradley. “And those reasons always include telling the story of the high quality of life and deep sense of community we have here.”
She said that part tells itself: “There are several colleges here, including University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown, St. Aloysius and St. Francis; our outdoor life is rich with fishing, hiking, skiing, kayaking and snowshoeing; we have a minor league baseball team; the housing is affordable; the local school districts are great, and the people here really have each other’s backs.”
The worker incentive program so far has drawn eight people, with more on the way, but Johnstown is relying on something much larger to stave the shrinkage.
Thanks to the late Rep. John Murtha, once the powerful chair of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, there is a path forward — one similar to what made small- and medium-size towns flourish in the golden era of railroads: a transportation hub.
To attract economic development — and the people who naturally follow jobs and opportunities — you have to have a transportation hub for a business of any type to want to locate here, explained Rick McQuaide, chair of the Johnstown-Cambria County Airport Authority.
“Whether moving people or commerce, the positive economic impact is no different than the presence of a railroad in a small town 100 years ago,” Mr. McQuaide said. “A train stop in your town meant prosperity; it shaped the very growth of the town and the eventual growth of their suburbs.”
When the railroad stations closed, many of those towns did as well. “The ability to transport not just people, but goods to surrounding areas was cut off and their vitality shrunk. The same thing happens when a smaller city either does not have a regional airport or it loses its carrier.”
Last month, United Airlines dropped a total of 12 destinations in small city regional airports in the Midwest and the South, cutting off those cities’ ability to grow. But things are different in Cambria County.
The airport in Johnstown, Cambria’s largest population center, has been so busy in the past 11 months that enplanements are at levels not seen for more than a dozen years.
“We’re now achieving between 1,200 and 2,000 enplanements a month — a significant improvement over our annual enplanements with the smaller carriers that were between 3,500 and 4,500 a year,” Mr. McQuaide explained. A new airline with twin-engine-jets recently took over what had been single-engine air service at the hub, which is now on track to exceed 10,000 enplanements a year.
Flying in and out is a breeze. There’s no crazy maze of parking lots to navigate; you just pull up and walk in the front door. The check-in and TSA security service is quick. The flights to Chicago and Washington, D.C., are fast. The 50-passenger aircraft have been operating at capacity on weekends, a little less so during the week, which allows passengers to bring on multiple bags and transfer them easily to their next flight .
On Tuesday afternoon, the Andrew family was unloading their family of six — two parents, a grandmother and three children — as well as all of their luggage and car seats at the front entrance of the airport en route to catch a flight to Chicago. The Madison, Wis., family has relatives in Cambria County. They’ve found that, especially when traveling with the children — 6, 3 and 1 years old — the local airport offers ease and flexibility over a larger one.
In 2009, an ABC News reporter infamously called the airport named for Mr. Murtha the “Airport for Nobody.” In penning a piece on politics, the reporter missed the economic vitality the airport provides this community.
“Before, anyone who lived here or owned a business here had to waste their entire day driving to Pittsburgh or to Baltimore to get somewhere,” Mr. McQuaide explained. “Knowing that you can get in and get out efficiently and affordably” is important for anybody wanting to locate here, he said. “As simple as that sounds, it really is what makes or breaks a small county in terms of offering that one more thing that no other county has.”
Mr. Canal said he hasn’t used the airport yet, but “I definitely will be.” Most importantly for business purposes: “I know I can get clients, investors and friends here with ease.”