Posted: Friday, October 23, 2009
SALEM, OR - Call it another economic indicator. Online sales of government surplus items in Oregon have dropped dramatically over the past year. Correspondent Chris Lehman has more.
Government surplus includes more than just filing cabinets and road-weary police cars. At a Salem warehouse, Oregon Surplus Property Program manager Brian King shows off a more unusual item, which was used by forensic students at Western Oregon University.
Brian King: “It’s basically a large stainless steel box, and it has a tray inside, where they would put the cadavers on. The tray would go up and down so they could lift the bodies out of the preservatives when they were working on them.”
Somebody must have wanted the cadaver tank. It sold on E-Bay for 152 bucks. But other bidders on the state’s surplus property auction site aren’t feeling so generous. King says sales are down 21 percent this year, from an average of about three million dollars a year. Office furniture has been especially anemic in the down economy.
Copyright 2009 OPB
On the Web:
Information about Oregon’s surplus program