Going once, going twice for police, fire station items

The City of Port Washington will hold an auction to sell furniture and equipment that its police and fire departments don’t need when they move to the Public Safety Building next week.

The General Government and Finance Committee last week agreed to hire Bichler Auction Services to handle the online auction, which is expected to run from Sept. 16 to 23, with items purchased picked up on Sept. 25 and 26.

Fire Chief Joe DeBoer told the committee that it’s not feasible for the city to handle this type of auction by itself, noting that when the department sold its old Suburban it took a significant amount of time to photograph the vehicle, write the listing and answer more than 20 emails about the vehicle.

“Imagine doing that for everything not going to the new facility with us?” he said. “There aren’t a lot of ways to get rid of that stuff.”

DeBoer said the items to be sold will likely
consist of things like old office furniture, appliances, bookshelves and meeting room chairs. The items will be offered to other city departments before being placed for auction, he added.

“Everything that’s left and not bolted down goes to them (Bichler),” he said. “At least this way we’re getting something back and we’re not spending staff time doing this.”

Finance Director Mark Emanuelson said the auction is “efficient and it will allow for a smoother transition to the public safety building.”

Department-issued equipment, technology, records and items not appropriate for public sale will not be included in the auction, he added.

Items not sold at the auction will be left in the building when it is sold and become the responsibility of the new owner, he said.

Bichler Auction Services will receive a 35% commission on the gross sales, and advertising and marketing expenses will be shared equally between the city and Bichler, with the City’s share capped at $500.

The police and fire departments are planning to move into the Public Safety Building next week, DeBoer said.

He noted that the departments have been culling items as they’ve been moving things to the Public Safety Building.

“There’s stuff that’s been there since the (current fire station) building opened,” he said. “There are some crazy, cool old things we’ve found, and some of those will be displayed at the new building.”

The department plans to digitize many of its records so it doesn’t have to store so many paper records, he said.

DeBoer said the department staff members have been going through and packing things, then moving them to the new building for the last several weeks.

About half of the things that will be moved by his department are already in the new building, he said, noting staff members have been moving things in as different parts of the building are completed.

The city had talked about hiring a moving company to transfer items to the Public Safety Building, DeBoer noted, but department members wanted to do it themselves.

“I think they’re excited to get in there and stop living in two places,” he said.

DeBoer said the department plans to move the remainder of the items it’s keeping on Monday night, a move that will likely culminate in a parade of fire trucks to the new building with firefighters in their turnout gear.

“Everybody wants to bring their gear on their own and set it up in their locker the way they want,” DeBoer said.

“And if there’s a call in the middle of the night Monday, we’ll respond from the new station.”