Junk or Jewels?

PALMER — Need a kiddie pool with just one visible hole?

How about a table with some colorful free-hand artwork scrawled across the top?

Maybe a used athletic scoreboard would be just the ticket to spruce up your man cave.

All of these itches can be scratched today at the Mat-Su Borough School District surplus auction. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., the district’s warehouse at 690 Cope Industrial Way will be buzzing with one of the fall season’s largest yard sales.

“This is actually a small amount for us,” said Ron Rucker, a 15-year employee at the warehouse, pointing out a selection of audio-visual equipment that will be sold. “We consistently have AV carts with TVs, VCRs, overhead projectors. We have them because we’re putting what are called Promethean boards into every classroom, and those run everything through a computer and project it up on the board. We’ve put in about 700 Promethean boards over the last several years.”

Although employees aren’t allowed to bid, one year Rucker’s wife purchased a pallet of eight television sets for $5.

While most of the televisions and VCRs work, like any garage or yard sale, buyers purchase everything as-is, said Bob Shumaker, who works in the district purchasing office.

“Most of the surplus is very, very used,” he said. “What we do with the student desks — they’re not in the best of shape — but we’ll call charter or homeschools.”

During his 10 years with the MSBSD, “I’ve seen a lot of stuff,” Shumaker said. “On our last sale we had stuff from Su Valley before the fire. They were going to work on the roof, and we had a front entrance and stuff for the new roof. We couldn’t make heads or tails of it. It was a lot of aluminum, so we called the local welding shops to make sure they came to look at it.”

Those at today’s sale will have a chance to bid on some used gymnastics equipment, including two full-sized pommel horses, balance beams, mats, parallel and uneven bars. That came from three district schools, Rucker said.

As for the scoreboard, it could find a home with a nostalgic local alum.

“This is Palmer High’s old scoreboard,” Rucker said. “It was working — not very well, but it was working. The control panel is there and everything, so in theory it should work when installed, but it might take a lot of work.”

Then there are buyers like Larry Knouse. The Palmer resident is a regular at school district surplus sales. One year he bought 400 chairs that later found a home at a Valley Boy Scout camp, other times he finds hidden gems that can go to local schools or organizations.

“Basically, anything my wife will let me take home,” he said.

While Knouse looks for furniture and other knickknacks and donates them, other buyers are like Denise Koehrer. Koehrer is vice principal at Matanuska Christian School, and for smaller schools like hers, the MSBSD’s surplus auction is important. What may be overused junk for one school is a hidden treasure for another.

“This is how we are able to afford things for our school,” she said. “This allows me to do things with my students I would never be able to do.”

Buying items at the surplus auction is also a good lesson for students about recycling, she said. And when Koehrer places her sealed bids, she has a secret weapon to help ensure her bid is successful.

“I pray a lot,” she said.

Homeschool parents and organizations usually turn out and bid on items like student desks and tables, Rucker said. Today, there are also five science counters with built-in sinks at the warehouse.

“Those are really nice,” Rucker said. “Sometimes we have really nice stuff. These were in a school that didn’t need them anymore.”

The district has surplus sales usually twice a year, he said, and sometimes three times a year, Rucker said.

“Basically, it’s as needed,” he said. “One year we had six.”

There are folding and mobile lunchroom tables and all-purpose tables, at least one that has some student weathering to it, he said.

“Some of them have been decorated on top” with carvings, he said.

Rucker knows where most of the surplus came from, but after 15 years he is still surprised by the variety that can show up at his warehouse, like the kiddie pool.

“Well, as far as kiddie pools go, it’s a pretty nice one, even has a slide,” he said. “I have no idea how this showed up here.”

The main benefit the district sees from surplus auctions isn’t necessarily from the money bidders pay, Shumaker said. Without the sales, the district would have to shell out money to dispose of the used equipment.

Then there’s the used athletic icing tub that came from some school’s training room. It still has the water jet mechanism in the bottom, Rucker said.

Knouse also noticed the icing tub and said he may place a bid on it. As for what else caught his eye, “That I can’t tell you,” he said. “I don’t want to tip off any other bidders.”

Photo Editor Robert DeBerry contributed to this report. Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.