Well-used city equipment up for bids Saturday

Bicycles, desks, police cars and computers are among items to be sold off.

Want an orange kayak? How about a high-mileage, used police car; a worn-out trash truck or even a damaged, street sign post?

They are among hundreds of well-worn vehicles, pieces of equipment and unclaimed items that the city of Cape Girardeau no longer needs.

All of it will be sold at auction Saturday at the city's former public works building at 219 N. Kingshighway. The auction starts at 9 a.m.

Tim Gramling, public works director, said he expects the auction to draw a few hundred people intent on finding a bargain.

It could take until mid-afternoon to auction all the items, he said.

Gramling expects most items will sell even if for only a few bucks.

There's no minimum bid, he said.

The city holds such an auction at least once every 18 months, Gramling said.

The city usually garners $20,000 to $30,000 from the auction after expenses, he said. City officials plow that money back into the general fund to help pay for future equipment purchases.

The city earlier this year bought new police cars with money generated from a fire sales tax. As a result, the city has nearly two dozen police cars on the auction block, Gramling said.

The city stripped the old patrol cars of sirens, police lights, radios and even the police logo.

City officials typically hold the auction in the spring or fall.

The city has auctioned items at Arena Park in past years. But the recent relocation of public works offices allowed the city to schedule the auction at the former public works building on Kingshighway, Gramling said.

The equipment up for auction Saturday includes a "Shaker Buddy." The city used the square-box device to separate dirt from the trash picked up by the street sweeper.

Said Gramling, "Most people will say, 'What's that?'"

Public works crews, he said, operated the device for the past six or seven years before replacing it.

"This one just kind of shook itself to death. Just by design it kind of destroys itself over time," he said.

Police Cpl. Joseph Tado spent Thursday cleaning out the evidence room of a vast array of unclaimed property picked up by police over the past year.

"We have about 200 bicycles," he said.

Clothes, cell phones, VCRs., televisions, jewelry, a microwave and a kayak also take up space in the evidence room.

They, too, will be auctioned.

Said Tado, "You would be surprised what people will buy."

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123