Old ECMS furniture auction set for Saturday
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

L-N Photo by Brenda Sommer Need Some Stuff? Tables, shelves, cabinets, desks and chairs were lined from one end of the old El Campo Middle School gymnasium to the other as preparations were made for the El Campo ISD surplus property auction. The event will be held at 10 a.m. at the old middle school on MLK Boulevard, and includes lots of items left over from the move to the new middle school last month.

If you want a little something - or a lot of something - to remember the old El Campo Middle School by, an auction Saturday is the perfect time to snag your treasure.

Kevin Stehling, El Campo ISD director of maintenance, said the March 15 auction of surplus ECISD items is mostly comprised of leftovers from the old middle school. The new, $17.6-million El Campo Middle School on FM 2765 opened for classes Feb. 11.

"The gym is full and the rest of the school is full," auctioneer Doug Mathews said. "That whole school is full of stuff - student desks, overhead projectors, storage cabinets, TVs on rolling stands."

The auction starts at 10 a.m. at the old ECMS campus at 1401 MLK Blvd., with viewing starting at 8 a.m., Mathews said.

Included are hundreds of stackable chairs, more than 60 square cafeteria tables, 40 science lab tables, and about 500 student desks. As well, the sale features filing cabinets, tall storage cabinets with doors, a couple dozen televisions with stands and around 100 computers.

"There's also a little cafeteria shelving, and a lot of lockers," Stehling said.

Odds and ends include old metal lathes, a big band saw, a chemical spray rig for turf and "an old lawnmower that doesn't work," he added.

Mathews said how the auction will work depends on the crowd.

"We're going to have to take it as it comes, depending on who's there," he said.

Some items may be sold in large lots, where the high bidder pays one price for all the items in that lot. Other property will be sold in "choice" auctions, where a winning bidder can buy one, several or all items in a lot, paying his high bid price for each item he selects.

"Obviously, if you have 1,000 chairs and people only want one or two, you'll never get out of there," Mathews said, explaining why some items will be sold as all one lot. "We're going to try and get through it as quick as we can."

Stehling said his main goal for the auction "is to just try to get rid of as much of it as possible."

"It will be an interesting day," he said.