An OPEN LETTER to the members of the Bridgeport Exempted Village School Board of Education:
You’ve picked on the wrong man and the wrong fight in seeking a location for a new football stadium. You insulted John Callarik when offering the man $700,000 for six acres that’s most likely worth more than three times that amount, and you voted to threaten him with eminent domain for, in reality, a next-door amenity and not a necessity for public use.
He said on The Watchdog this week that he wanted to “bop them in the head” for treating him in the manner he believes you have, especially since, Callarik insisted, he’s done anything and everything to help the school district for a long time, and the man is 94 years young. He also did not appreciate the timing of the certified letter, either. Right before Christmas? Who does that?
“It wrecked my Christmas,” he said. “I wouldn’t sell it to them now even if they offered me $5 million.”
You see, Callarik has people that he knows depend on him for the storage units and the laundromat and for their homes. He’s collected more than a thousand signatures for petition that pledges support, and the property owner is refusing to hire legal representation because he would have to spend money on something he shouldn’t need to spend it on.
Say what you wish about John Callarik, a former mayor of the village of Bridgeport who owns several businesses, including a construction company. After purchasing the wooded and swampy land several years ago, he created his own economic development for the village, the school district, Pease Township, and Belmont County. Annually, from his businesses on those six acres, he paid in taxes nearly $30,000 in 2018.
And you want to erase that much-needed revenue from East Ohio for a football field?
“I can guarantee two things,” Callarik said. “I’m not selling my land, and I guarantee my bulldozers are bigger than their bulldozers.”
The. Wrong. Man.
Sincerely,
Fans of Perkins Field
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