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Politics & Government

Budget Windfall from Surplus Auction

Equipment sold raises over $160,000.

Mansfield has $160,000 more to work with for the next budget round, thanks to a months-long effort to sell off unused equipment and vehicles on the Internet.

Town Manager Bill Ross told selectmen this week there are only 3-4 vehicles left in the back lot at the DPW headquarters on East Street, instead of the 9-12 that cluttered the lot before.

In addition, surplus plow equipment, police cruisers, and even bikes have found new homes - some have already been sent off to new destinations, the bicycles to Africa.

Ross said the bulk of the money will end up in the water, wastewater, and utility coffers because those departments had the biggest surplus equipment items.

Chairman of selectmen Jess Aptowitz, who with several other board members has been backing the effort, said clutter is not the only reason to dispose of unneeded equipment. The move takes all those items off the insurance roles as well.

"We now have a process to move vehicles out," Ross said, giving the nod to special projects manager Mike Ahern, who captained the effort to place items on a website designed to market used municipal equipment.

A total of 78 individual items were put on the site, and the auction closer shortly before Christmas.

The town has disposed of used fire engines, high mileage police cruisers, and other large equipment in the past, but has not conducted a system wide purge recently.

Ross said the $160,000 total was far more than what he anticipated the town would net from the auction.

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