County accepting bids for surplus property
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors has agreed to sell 16 pieces of surplus equipment previously used by the road department.
The scrap value of the items is about $25,000, but Supervisors hope the items will bring more when sold individually.
Brad Skinner, Montgomery County Engineer, asked for the approval of securing bids for the property no longer useful or items for which there is no operator.
“After awhile, you can recognize which equipment is used and what’s not,” Skinner said. “Some of the equipment is over 50 years old and we’re not doing things like we used to do,” he said. The department hopes to have equipment on hand that “blends” with what the department currently does.
Skinner said due to past staffing reductions, they lost workers who would have operated some of the equipment no longer being used.
“We have some heavy equipment that we’re not able to use,” Skinner said, speaking of such items as excavation cranes or equipment capable of removing bridges. He said if equipment isn’t used on a routine basis it becomes less reliable.
Bids will be closed at 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 20 and reported to the Board of Supervisors at their Oct. 22 meeting.
People can arrange to view the items between 7 a.m.-3 p.m. at the equipment yard, 2246 Highway 48, about half a mile south of Red Oak, or discuss the items by calling the engineer’s office. The items can be viewed until Oct. 16 and bids must be in by Oct. 20.
Items to be sold include a 1950 Caterpillar, 1972 Dragline crane with 65-foot boom, a 1966 crane with a 45-foot boom, hydraulic grader lift accessories, five vehicles, pickup truck equipment and other items. For a detailed list or more information, call 623-5197 and ask for Jens Smith or Dave Jackson.
Skinner said if the bids are much lower than the potential scrap iron price, which was $120 a ton last week, the county may opt to sell items for scrap instead.
In other business, Skinner said he expected most of the nearly 100 secondary road and bridge projects partially covered by stimulus funds to be completed before Thanksgiving.
In other business, the board approved extending the timeline for collecting taxes from the Red Oak Urban Renewal project that has not been developed as originally hoped and the board also approved abating taxes for the City of Elliott for recent property acquisitions.
One other item to save money was deciding not to modify the men’s toilets in the courthouse which are misused especially on court days. A request that would have made them “automatic flush” would cost $500 per toilet. The board felt they could not justify that expense and hoped men using the toilets would be more courteous or that maintenance personnel could change schedules to more closely monitor those toilets on court days. The women’s restroom had no apparent need for automatic flush toilets.