Burns: JRA should return $200,000 state grant for Cambria-Rowe Building asbestos removal
‘They took the money I obtained, then backed out of the project’
Rep. Frank Burns October 6, 2025 | 12:52 PM
JOHNSTOWN, Oct. 6 – Unless the Johnstown Redevelopment Authority comes up with a way to replace a $1.9 million federal grant earmarked to upgrade the Cambria-Rowe Building—money it had to return because it wasn’t spent after five years—state Rep. Frank Burns wants the JRA to also return a $200,000 state grant he obtained last fall to remove asbestos at the building so it can be used elsewhere in his district.
Burns, D-Cambria, said he moved quickly and effectively to secure the state funding after Dr. George Frem and the late Rev. Monsignor Raymond Balta approached him, saying that solving the asbestos problem would remove the final hurdle to Frem’s plan to convert the vacant building to the Ave Maria Medical Care Center, the city’s first and only urgent care facility.
“I obtained that $200,000 in good faith, believing it would be added to the $3.8 million in state and federal funding already awarded to the JRA, which planned to use the money to create the medical center,” Burns said. “The JRA accepted that state funding and gladly used it to remove asbestos. Then, the JRA sent back $1.9 million to the feds, effectively scuttling the $3.8 million Ave Maria project.
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“It frosts me to read where Mark Critz, the new JRA executive director, says that the asbestos abatement funded by the grant that I obtained is still moving forward, and the building is now marketable with over 22,000 square feet of usable space.” – State Rep. Frank Burns
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“It frosts me to read where Mark Critz, the new JRA executive director, says that the asbestos abatement funded by the grant that I obtained is still moving forward, and the building is now marketable with over 22,000 square feet of usable space.”
Burns added, “They took the money I obtained, then backed out of the project. And they’re still using that money to make the building suitable for another buyer. That’s no honorable, ethical way to do business. And like many others familiar with how things are done in Johnstown, I am left to speculate on who—and how connected—that buyer will be.”
Burns said he plans to investigate what state avenues might be available to recoup that $200,000, which he believes the JRA used while knowing full well that the Cambria-Rowe project on the table was going to be shelved.