#adecasurplus

Laptops, office furniture, vehicles, generators and even portable paint booths are among the 365 lots of items up for bid in the next state surplus property auction this week.

The Surplus Property Division of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs is hosting the auction via GovDeals.com starting at 7:30 a.m. this Thursday, Feb. 25 with bidding running until 6 p.m. Wednesday March 3. For information on becoming an authorized bidder, click here. The auction items will be listed here starting on Feb. 25: www.GovDeals.com/AlabamaSurplus. In addition to property no longer needed by state and federal agencies, ADECA acquires items abandoned voluntarily at several airports in the Southeast.

Auction items can be inspected on-site at the Surplus Property Division’s Montgomery warehouse, 4590 Mobile Highway, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 26. ADECA conducts online public auctions periodically each year, but surplus items are available at any time to municipal and county governments, state agencies and qualified nonprofit organizations.

In addition to the surplus property program, ADECA administers an array of grant programs for law enforcement and traffic safety, economic development, energy conservation, water resource management and recreation development.

Surplus Chief Shane Bailey explains the Surplus program to Horan.

It could be that the energy used to light up San Juan, Puerto Rico in the near future had its spark in Alabama.

A non-profit group on Wednesday inspected several electrical generators at ADECA’s Surplus Property warehouse with the idea of obtaining them and perhaps other Surplus property to help residents in Puerto Rico who continue to reel from Hurricane Maria which battered the Caribbean island last fall.

While Puerto Rico has been able to rebound from the storm, that recovery has been slow.

“The infrastructure is still very fragile,” said Bill Horan, president of Operation Blessing International, a non-profit relief organization based in Virginia Beach, Va. “The other day one line went down and that put the island out of electricity for 36 hours.”

Horan said his search for a large generator has intensified because a hospital in the island’s capital, San Juan, is having to pay about $30,000 a month to rent a generator to supply some electricity.

Horan and Surplus employee Steve Forney inspect a generator.

Much of the equipment inspected by Horan was items acquired from the U.S. Department of Defense or the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Surplus Property Division Chief Shane Bailey said while the division has never supplied equipment to a U.S. territory like Puerto Rico, it is common for Surplus equipment held at the Montgomery warehouse to be sent to areas where natural disasters have occurred.

“We have sent a lot of equipment to Florida over the years and to Texas when they had a hurricane,” Bailey said. “They have also sent equipment to us when we needed it.”

Operation Blessing has worked in numerous counties and in the United States providing disaster relief, hunger, medical needs and supplying clean water.

The 1033 LESO (Law Enforcement Support Office) Program provides surplus military equipment to law enforcement agencies. This video explains the program, new rules and restrictions, and enhanced oversight of the program. The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) administers the program in Alabama.

Last week our Surplus Property Division conducted its last public auction for 2015. The next one will take place in January 2016. Find out more about the public auctions and how the revenue collected at these auctions helps the state in this video.