For the past three years the Internet website govdeals.com has allowed the City of Union to sell all of its surplus equipment, maintenance director Mike Petrie says.

Govdeals.com provides government agencies with the means to sell surplus and confiscated items on the Internet. Petrie said the city has been using the website since June 2006 to sell a wide variety of surplus vehicles and other equipment.

“Whenever surplus equipment comes into the garage we do the description of it, take pictures of it, load it on the govdeals website and sell it,” he said. “We’ve sold cars, all forms of trucks and other equipment such as backhoes. We’ve sold bicycles. We’ve sold air packs from the fire department that have expired and have to be gotten rid of. We’ve sold furniture, office equipment and computer equipment.”

Petrie said the city no longer holds live auctions for its surplus equipment because the website allows it to sell them much faster. He said with live auctions, the city sometimes had items that didn’t sell. That’s not the case with govdeals.com.

“It moves fast; we’ve never failed to sell an item that’s been put on govdeals,” he said. “The biggest difference is that in a live public auction you’re exposing your surplus equipment to maybe a hundred people. On govdeals you’re exposing it to thousands of people so now we just sell everything through govdeals.”

Over the past three years, the sales of surplus equipment on the site has generated $115,387.42 in gross revenue for the city. Each time an item sells the city pays govdeals.com a fee. Since 2007 the city has paid $9,095.04 in fees leaving it with a net profit of $106,292.38. The money from the sales is placed in the city’s general government fund.

The latest items the city will be placing on the website are also the most unusual: two concrete whales. The whales, which have built-in sprinklers, were a summertime attraction at Foster Park for the past 17 years. They were removed earlier this month due to electrical, plumbing and safety problems caused by their deteriorated condition. The city replaced them with picnic tables and two grills.

The whales are now at the city garage where Petrie says they will remain until sold. He said he will develop a description of the whales, take pictures of them and post them on the site.

“Now we’ve got the whales for sale,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll ever have items like for that sale again. This could be a one-time event.”

———

How do you feel about the city’s decision to remove the whales from Foster Park and replace them with picnic tables and two grills? Make your opinion known through our on-line poll at www.uniondailytimes.com.