RI town selling surplus property online

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. (WPRI) - The town of Middletown plans to begin raising extra revenue by selling its old, unwanted items online.

The town used to sell its surplus property the old fashioned way, through a sealed bid process at Middletown Town Hall.  Now Middletown officials hope integrating in the internet into the auctions will draw more interest and help raise thousands of extra dollars.

Middletown's information technology director, Matthew Wainwright, explained how people can bid on the surplus property.

"The user will come onto our website, they can click on the bid system, it will take them to the Municibid website. They will see all of Middletown's items that are for sale, and they can actually bid on that."

Middletown's surplus items will be featured on the Municibid website beginning April 9.

"We're going to have computer equipment, monitors," Wainwright explains.  "There's a safe, a fire-proof safe we want to get rid of, so several different items, all different categories."

The town also auctions off unused vehicles, such as old police cars.

"We will also try to incorporate some vehicles in the coming weeks.  We have to identify which vehicles, and deem whether they're safe or not to be sold.  Once they're deemed safe, we'll put those online as well." 

Wainwright hopes the auctions will bring in between $5,000 and $10,000 at first, and possibly more as the auctions catch on.

"I can see that possibly reaching 15 thousand dollars.  It's nominal but it's still making use of stuff that otherwise may just sit around for ten years and potentially be deemed surplus and destroyed."

Wainwright says the online auctions will not cost Middletown any money.  Instead, the bid system will keep eight percent of each item's value as a service fee.

• Click here for the Municibid website