Trash to treasure
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
July 5, 2007 Thursday
FINAL EDITION
TRASH TO TREASURE
BYLINE: By ALEJANDRA CANCINO Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 3B
LENGTH: 434 words
On Fridays, a day before the sale starts, Angelo Di Pierro sees people standing in line by 9 a.m. Some are locals; others are from Mexico and Canada or even Jamaica and the Bahamas.
What people dispose of here is gold in their countries, said Di Pierro, manager of Palm Beach County’s fixed asset management office, which operates the Palm Beach County Thrift Store in suburban West Palm Beach.
A 1988 Young 1,250-gallons per minute pumper firetruck with a “24″ painted on its sides was used in the Glades before it stopped working. Sunny Sam, a bright-yellow sun with glasses that sits on a garbage can with a recycle symbol, was part of a Solid Waste Authority recycling campaign.
This fiscal year, Di Pierro said, the county will make about $3 million in sales from lost-and-found items, old computers, cars, bicycles and other items local government agencies don’t use or have replaced with better ones.
There are nine sales every fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
More than 650 people go to the store’s sales with their husbands, wives, children or business partners. They walk through rows of Dell computers and shiny jewelry, scan the lot with cars and peruse the bookshelves.
About 500 books ring up for a mere $40. Sam’s Bath, a children’s book with a chewed corner, is 25 cents, and Avril Lavigne’s Let Go CD goes for $1.
High-value items are auctioned. Customers have a one-time chance to make a silent bid on passenger cars, trucks, vans, buses or a lost tennis bracelet with 41 diamonds appraised at $10,000.
The sales are on the third Saturday of the month except for August and September, when officials do inventory; and November, when items are saved for a big sale on the second Saturday of December.
The proceeds go back to the agencies or departments that provided the items and are used for replacements or upgrades. The money from the sale of lost-and-found items and confiscated stolen property goes to local schools or law enforcement agencies.
Everyone who attends the sale has to register. They can do so online at www.pbcgov.com/fin_mgt/store/. The Thrift Store is at 3323 Belvedere Road, Building 507.
Di Pierro said there are more than 16,000 people registered. Some attend sales every couple of months; some move out of the state and come back every couple of years just to see what they can find - a bench, an engagement ring, a bicycle or a trench excavator.
The next sale will be on July 21. By the end of this year, Di Pierro hopes they can have online auctions, similar to eBay.
Until then, “Come out and have a good time,” Di Pierro said.