bye bye tax dollars. government does it again
Posted on 03/03/2009 10:19:54 AM PST by prez234
EAST STROUDSBURG — A dollar on eBay makes a pricey classroom trailer go away.
In 2006, East Stroudsburg Area School District bought a portable classroom for $62,000. In December, the same unit sold online for $1.
Now, board members, taxpayers and administrators are fuming, and wondering how it could have happened...
It was the winter break, and Brad Fitzpatrick, a member of the district's technology staff, placed the trailer on eBay, according to board minutes.
Typically, sellers on eBay place reserves on their merchandise. That means they set a minimum acceptable level at which their item can sell. If no one's bid reaches that level, the item doesn't sell. But in this case, that didn't happen; the trailer was not put on reserve.
(Excerpt) Read more at poconorecord.com ...
I won several types of auctions like that, only problem is when you get the shipping quote!
How did it happen? Easy.
Typical stupid government employee.
Your government at work.
bye bye tax dollars. government does it again
How in the hell is a trailer worth $62k to start with?
When the government’s the buyer.
It’s a heated portable classroom with electricity and (usually) plumbing, much like a mobile home. Most of them are double-wides.
LOL.
My sister works for a government agency. She needed a new filing cabinet, and wanted to go to Walmart to get a $40 filing cabinet. However, she was told she couldn't do that; instead she had to fill out a bunch of forms, wait a few weeks, and the cabinet ended up costing at least a couple of hundred dollars, IIRC.
Oh, and she also told me how oftentimes, people will come in, turn on their computers so everyone thinks they're at work, then leave for an extended break.
The article said — “Many of them peppered James Shearouse, the district’s director of maintenance, with questions on the cost of taking apart and moving the trailers. Last week, Shearouse explained that it costs $2,400 to split, move and store the modular classrooms. To move, reassemble and put one of the units on its base again costs $5,200.”
So, that’s approximately about $7,600 for nothing more than getting it out of there, along with the costs for the buyer to hold onto it for a while (”storage”), and then get a place to set it up, and place it on its base again (at the new location).
===== ===== ===== ===== =====
Then on down in the article, it said — “Shearouse said he tried since the fall to find a buyer, asking neighboring districts and modular classroom manufacturers if they wanted the used classrooms. No one did.
[ ... ]
The board also revised to $25,000 its asking price for each of the remaining trailers.
There have been no takers.”
—
Ummmm..., yeah, that’s what happens when you try to sell something that no one wants and you set the price too high. The $1 was probably all they could get for the unit, since the buyer has to put out $7,600 just to get it off the property, hold it for a while and then set it up at another place (not to say anything about “distance costs”, too).
PA School Board’s are notoriously inept and are total tools of the teacher’s unions.
As are the teachers.
OOPs!
http://www.zazzle.com/obama_oops_bumper_sticker-128969061044846558
http://www.cafepress.com/culdesack/6488722
Ridiculous. All they had to do was refund the money and cancel the transaction. Sure, they can get in trouble with ebay, but they can’t force them to actually sell it.
If you do that, best to minimize your Daily Kos page before you go for “coffee”.
Those that can do, those that can’t teach.
School management is comprised of teachers!
They tried to get out of it?
ROFL.
Just don’t give it to the guy and refund his money. What’s ebay going to do, cancel your account? What’s the buyer going to do? Sue you? Bah. Someone wasn’t trying hard enough.
Have they checked for any “special relationship” between the supposedly inept employee and the buyer?
Is the supposedly inept employee still supposedly working for the district?
“Those that can do, those that can’t teach.
School management is comprised of teachers!”
So those that can’t teach teach others how to teach!
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