By KIM NORTH

Times Leader Sports Writer

BRIDGEPORT — The Bridgeport Exempted Village School District sent registered letters Monday to a pair of property owners stating it has decided to stop eminent domain proceedings on their properties that it started in an attempt to construct an athletic complex.

“Proactively, the board of education has notified landowners next to the school campus that we have decided not to move forward with the eminent domain process,” Superintendent Brent Ripley said, adding that the district has begun a flood plain study that will take four to six weeks to complete.

“They should be moving on that,” Ripley said of The Kleingers Group, a Cincinnati-based civil engineering firm. “After that is complete, we then move into a geotechnical review to ensure the soil is adequate to support bleachers. If we get approval from our local flood plain coordinator and the state, the board of education will put efforts towards rebuilding at that site.

“While we have no official timeline to begin playing games again at our home facility, we are optimistic that we will get approval to rebuild.”

One of the property owners involved in the eminent domain effort, former village mayor John Callarik, put up a strong fight against the process. The 94-year-old has built a business center adjacent to the school — Chapter Square — which consists of a popular laundromat, car wash and more than 100 storage units.

“It’s good for everybody,” Callarik said when informed of the district’s decision to abandon eminent domain. “I would just like to thank all the people who helped and worked hard at this. I never knew I had so many good friends. This shows you that people can work together if they want to.”

He said that in the future, he hopes nothing like this ever happens again.

“Let’s work together instead of blowing it all out (of proportion),” Callarik stressed. “You can accomplish more that way.

“This news kind of puts tears in my eyes,” Callarik said as his voice cracked and his eyes welled up.

“It is good news. So many good people stood in there with me on both sides. I think everything will turn out good. I know and they know that Perkins Field was a good field before and it can be brought back again.

“You never give up. You always look at the positive side of everything. There is always a solution for anything. I never look at the negative side,” he continued. “They will be playing football again at Perkins Field. I truly believe that.”

Ripley said the new structure, if and when approved, wouldn’t need to be as big as the former grandstands that had seating for 1,500 fans and was unique in the fact that it was covered and kept fans out of the elements. Bill Jobko Stadium was one of a handful of high school stadiums in the Buckeye State with covered seating areas. Three of the others are located in the Ohio Valley in Bellaire, Caldwell and Martins Ferry. Ironton also has covered seating similar to that in Martins Ferry. The nearly 100-year-old wooden grandstand at Bridgeport was demolished last year after being declared unstable by a Wheeling architectural firm.

“We do, however, want to have enough seating so that all of our fans and the opposing fans can have a seat,” Ripley pointed out.

There are two sets of portable aluminum bleachers, which are a couple of decades old, at Perkins Field that would seat approximately 300.

“Those aren’t our best option. We would ultimately like to have permanent seating,” the superintendent said. “But nothing like we had before.”

He said one cost estimate for covering the bleachers was astronomical.

“It was something like half-a-million dollars,” he noted.

Board of education President Jerry Moore said an outside group would have to step up to take on that project.

“If the alumni group or some other group would be interested in taking on that project, we’d like to listen,” Moore said. “But that’s not in our plans.”

Ripley said when he was with Harrison Hills City School District, part of the area around Wagner Field in Cadiz had to be concrete-stabilized.

“It was what they called ‘marshy,'” he said. “They rolled concrete in by using a ground tractor and kind of tilled it in, so that’s an option. But that’s costly as well.”

Asked whether it was feasible to bus the opposing team to the school complex, located about 1.5 miles west on National Road, to dress and shower, Ripley said it was.

“Yes, we bus our kids down there for practice,” he noted.

He said the district also is looking into what can be done with the original cement block fieldhouse at Perkins Field, which Moore said was constructed in 1971.

“We want to make that building a shell as much as possible so that things such as wrestling mats can be hung on the walls, as well as making it easily accessible to clean should it flood again.

As far as concessions, Ripley and Moore were both adamant that they want the school boosters to continue manning the concession stands.

“We want our booster organizations to reap the benefits of selling the concessions to the fans,” Ripley said.

Moore added, “We are not in the market to purchase a food truck.”

Restrooms are also a concern.

“We were told that port-a-johns are not handicap accessible, even though you see some,” Ripley continued. “Regular ones we can use, but we’re looking at doing something creative with our fieldhouse to get some handicap-accessible restrooms in there.”

The district has 850 students including preschool, Ripley said. The high school enrollment is 233. He said the Bulldogs suited up 22-23 kids last season but had 30 players during 2018.

Athletic Director Greg Harkness said the district brought in somewhere between $3,000 and $3,500 at each home game last season, which were all played at the Dave Bruney Football Complex in Martins Ferry. The Bulldogs had split their home games the season before between Martins Ferry and St. Clairsville. Attendance figures for the last time Perkins Field was used, which was during the 2017 season, were not available.

Ripley said there is a letter available at the district office that details some positive news about the district, as well as the notifying of landowners concerning the eminent domain process.