Downtown banners celebrate Johnstown's 250th

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

Johnstown Department of Public Works employee Eric Houser uses a drill gun to install a new 250th anniversary banner Wednesday on a lamppost along West Main Street in front of Sir William Johnson Park.

City crews took down decorative snowflakes today and hung in their place new banners marking the city’s 250th anniversary on downtown lightposts.

The banners — alternatively described as sharp, handsome and rich — have a dark maroon border with the city seal in the center. “Celebrate the past” and “Look to the future” adorn the banners in bright blue lettering.

“That’s part of the celebration of 2008,” Mayor Sarah Slingerland said. “We received some very generous donations from community businesses and private individuals, so we’ve been able to purchase those and fund other activities.”

Slingerland said the motto is appropriate for the city at this point in time, because Johnstown is at another crossroads in its history.

“Johnstown Celebrates 2008: Time Marches On,” is the official name for the series of events that are being planned by the steering committee.

Slingerland said the committee is currently working out the details concerning a dinner set for June 14. The Johnstown Historical Society, in conjunction with the Daughters of the American Revolution, will welcome Gavin K. Watt, author and president of the Museum of Applied Military History, to the city as a guest speaker at that dinner.

A big parade is also set for Sept. 13.

Slingerland said anyone who wants more information or wants to help plan the anniversary events may contact her or City Historian Noel Levee.

More information is available on the city’s Web site at www.cityofjohnstown-ny.com.