BRIDGEPORT—While the city of Bridgeport, in central Lawrence County, has been hurting for a number of years, it appears there are some folks who are just now waking up to the fact.
And it seems to have caught several of them off guard.
Bridgeport city alderman TJ McClellan and alderwoman Robin Wirth, who was apparently feeling as disgusted as she was looking like she felt.
During the July regular meeting of the Bridgeport city council, it was announced that the city is pretty much broke…and the word “bankruptcy” was thrown around.
A lot of this (okay, MOST of this) is directly attributed to the former mayor of the city of Bridgeport, Max Schauf (2001-2013), whose three terms in office were marked by a federal lawsuit with a trash company (which the city lost), the filing of yet another federal lawsuit by a local businessman (which the city is probably going to have to settle out of court), yet another federal lawsuit by a former police officer (which the city will likely be forced to settle, as it regards wrongful termination), a water supply debacle that’s left the city in a lurch with their former provider, the city of Lawrenceville, and of course, the fact that their former mayor has entered a plea to federal felonies and will be sentenced in September.
That former mayor (Schauf) was certainly making his presence known throughout the regular meeting July 9, as well as a previous, specially-called meeting for July 2, despite not being present. Instead, he sent his surrogates, the whiny Connie Schauf-White (his sister) and Bev Preusz (his girlfriend) to plead to the council to allow a liquor license—illegally issued by Schauf before he left office in May—to stay in place. You can read about the whole mess, and what it means for the taxpayers, in this, our next “Read the Lead” offering, here at “Despite pending federal sentencing, ex mayor still makes presence known“:
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BRIDGEPORT— In lieu of the problems former mayor Max Schauf caused, there is an extreme effort to get the city of Bridgeport back on its feet, but as heard from alderwoman Robin Wirth at the July 9 city council meeting, “The city is about to file bankruptcy.”
And Wirth, who is back on the council as of April and after a lengthy absence, isn’t spouting hyperbole.
City finances are dismal, even given the fact that new mayor Brad Purcell has terminated the city’s trash hauling service (the creation of which was what got the city in trouble in 2006, when trash collection service Jamax filed suit—and subsequently won—against the city in a federal civil lawsuit based on interference of conducting business in the city) on July 12 in an effort to cut costs.
The settlement of that suit was out-of-court, but rumored to have cost the city money over and above what tort immunity insurance paid…possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And given the fact that two other civil suits are pending in federal court (former Bridgeport police officer Dave Dooley’s wrongful termination suit, and Bridgeport Package’s harassment suit, based largely on not against the city as much as it is against Schauf himself, as he was the one who took action against the package store owner Jamie Brunson), the worries are mounting.
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