Thumbnail photo by Persephone Rose
Del Norte Unified is planning to sell or junk a plethora of surplus vehicles, the newest of which is a 17-year-old Chevrolet van.
Though most of the vehicles run, none are in good, or even fair condition, DNUSD Superintendent Jeff Harris told trustees on Thursday. They include six vans, three pickup trucks, a box truck and two buses. Their condition grading ranges from zero to two.
“Zeros are scrap, one is inoperative and two is severe wear and tear,” Harris said. “We don’t have any vehicles on this list that are normal, fair or good. They’re all basically not something we want to put staff or students in.”
Someone’s interested in purchasing one of the two buses for sale. According to Harris, they plan to turn it into an RV.
Trustees unanimously approved a resolution declaring the vehicles surplus, which authorizes the district to sell them to the public.
The Board’s decision to sell its surplus vehicles comes after parents and staff raised concerns in December about safety issues in the district’s fleet of vans used to ferry students to athletic events, field trips and other activities.
On Thursday, Harris described driving one vehicle nicknamed the Red Rocket to the Central Valley only for all the warning lights to come on between Crescent City and Grants Pass. This happened about a decade ago, he said.
“And years ago, one of the vehicles we had that was kind of an impetus for white fleet purchases, one of our vans that the floor was rusted through and you could see the road as you were driving,” he said. “We’re getting rid of these. There are some new [vehicles] coming, but this gets all of these off our lot that are taking up space.”
Chris Armington, the district’s transportation director, said the district will advertise the sale of the vehicles “through websites and newspapers.” Bidders will be able to visit the district to take a look at “what is remaining of the vehicle.” They will then turn in a sealed bid, Armington said.
“We then open the bids with a few of the community to make sure the bids are accurate and the [vehicles] are going to the highest bidder,” he said. “Once that’s done, the bidder is selected and they have 48 hours to haul it on out of here.”
If there are no takers, the district will be able to scrap the vehicles, Armington told trustees.
“Because the vehicles are in deplorable condition, we just take them out for scrap, turn the plates into the DMV and, bye bye,” he said. “Down south, they’ve given us a couple pennies on the pound to dismantle [the vehicles] but also it depends on, not so much the condition, but how much metal weight there is.”
Most of the vehicles still have their full interiors intact, Armington said.
Trustee Michael Greer pointed out that since there aren’t scrap dealers available locally, it would cost more to take the surplus vehicles down to the scrap yards for dismantling.
