School Auctioneer Hopes FC High Will Be Sold
Tables line the wall of the Ford City High School gymnasium of equipment and school supplies that were not usable in the new Armstrong Jr.-Sr. High School.
by Jonathan Weaver
Auctioneer Julie Dunmire said last month’s Ford City Junior-Senior High auction included many items, but she also hopes someone is interested in purchasing the school.
Dunmire, of J. Dunmire Auction Service of Saltsburg, agreed that the building could be reused for several aspects – including storage, apartments and small businesses – without some of the items her company sold last month.
Dunmire acknowledged that she sold a few window air conditioners from Ford City Junior-Senior High, but also said she left many of the usable heat/air conditioning units, stage lighting and auditorium seats
“There are five or six (air conditioners) and we could’ve gotten a lot of money for them. I left them in there thinking ‘Maybe the next (owner) could use these.’”
“ I realized that there was a lot of hometown pride in that school – it generationally has graduated a lot of families – so as a result of that and keeping in mind that someone may want to purchase that building, I only removed the window air conditioners. We left more than we sold.”
Dunmire said after other school auctions her company has conducted, area schools – including the former-Kittanning Township Elementary - have been sold and reused.
The former-Willard Elementary in Saltsburg (Dunmire’s first auction and where Dunmire attended) became a storage facility after a few months, and three Kiski Area School District schools have also sold.
Those schools include when: Bell-Avon Elementary (in the village of Salina, Bell Township) was sold to an individual family following the 2014 advertisement, Washington Township Elementary (found along Route 66) was sold twice since the auction and Lower Point Elementary (along Airport Road, Parks Township) was sold to be re-purposed by Moret Construction of Lower Burrell in October 2014.
Kittanning Township Elementary was sold to Tim Fouse Excavating after a unanimous school board vote last year.
Only the former Shannock Valley Warehouse has been razed.
“All these auctions sold, and we did nothing different than we did at Ford City,” Dunmire said. “Out of the six school auctions we’ve done, only one of the buildings was ever razed, due to the condition.”
Dunmire is also awaiting the final determination by Fourth Economy consultants.
“Based on that report, they may or may not use my services to either a) sell the building or b) sell at the salvageable contents of what’s left,” Dunmire said. “I think it is a disservice to the taxpayers if the building were to be razed not to be able to get every available dollar out of the building prior to it being raised.
She said that Bill Henley and other school administrators have “gone above and beyond” in their actions with the three closed schools. She praised the school administrators for treating her and her staff with respect.
Armstrong School District | jweaver October 23, 2015
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