Plymouth City Council approves public auction of city surplus property in October

Monday, August 19, 2024 at 3:10 AM

By Kathy Bottorff

8-19-24 Monday News 3 A.M. E-8

Members of the Plymouth Common Council approved a contract with Oak Crest Auctions to rid various city departments of unwanted items.

The idea of an auction came about because Police Chief John Weir was going to clean out the storage building behind the fire station and realized how much stuff was packed inside. He was looking for a way to dispose of the items and the city administration determined the best way to do that was through a public auction.

City Attorney Jeff Houin said while speaking with other department heads, they too had items they wanted to dispose of. He said the Fire Department has a couple of trucks they don’t need anymore, and other departments have identified items of personal property they don’t need anymore.

The current plan is to hold a city-wide public auction later in October. Houin explained that the fire trucks will likely be purchased by other municipalities that would need to plan for the purchase by getting an additional appropriation in place.

The council members approved the contract with Oak Crest and a resolution to allow department heads to determine what items of personal property within their departments are not needed by the city and to declare those as surplus property so they can be sold.

The city attorney did discuss the brush truck the fire department wants to sell. When the equipment was originally purchased the city paid 50% of the cost and Center Township paid 31% while West Township paid the remaining 19%. The resolution will allow the net proceeds from the sale of the truck to be distributed to all three entities by those percentages.