YACHATS – “Officer Creepy” is going to need a new ride.
The battered mannequin has been used since 2017 as a prop in an old black-and-white cop car that the city of Yachats parked along U.S. Highway 101 to slow vehicles speeding into town.
But now his 2005 Ford Crown Victoria – and two other vehicles, a trailer, a radar speed sign trailer and a pile of PVC pipe – have been declared surplus and are available to anyone who wants them. Only one item – a 1992 vacuum truck used to clean sewers – has a minimum price of $3,000.
“For the rest, the minimum bid is zero dollars,” said David Buckwald, the city’s wastewater department leader. “If zero is the highest bid, they can take it.”
It is the first time the city has tried to get rid of surplus stuff, said Buckwald, who admits “I don’t get rid of anything.”
Now, he says, “Our goal now is to clean the yard out” to clear out and organize storage.
The city council on Thursday OK’d the surplus sale – even if doesn’t make a dime (except for the vac truck, as it is called).
The city has replaced all the surplus equipment, which Buckwald said “is not mechanically sound anymore.”
“We need stuff that is dependable,” he said.
Like the bucket truck, whose hydraulic system and engine no longer work. One of the last times it was used, utility worker Russ Roberts got stuck in the fully-extended bucket. The truck was gingerly driven over to the highest part of the treatment plant, where he climbed safely off.
“It would be perfect for a good mechanic,” Buckwald said, who said the same thing about a 1990 five-yard dump truck that hasn’t started in years.
One vehicle that’s not being sold is a large water truck that has so many cracks in its tank that a repair shop said it was through trying to fix it. It was declared surplus in 2015, Buckwald said, but never disposed of so it can’t be “sold” again.
There’s a tandem-axle trailer that has bent frame and needs wheels, a rusting radar speed sign on wheels that doesn’t work, and large-diameter PVC pipe that utility crews use for water and sewer. They’ve sat out in the sun so long that Buckwald is unsure it could withstand the necessary pressure.
“But I’m sure someone can find a use for it,” he said with his best salesman speil.
The vacuum truck is the only equipment that will require someone to hand over cash. Its engine leaks oil and the “jetter” pump needs replacing, Buckwald said, but it comes with a 40-pound jet head to clean out pipes that costs at least $3,000. The city replaced the old vac truck last year with a used one that cost $180,000.
And the Crown Vic? It won’t start any more, the engine has water in it and the tires are shot.
That means “Officer Creepy” – so nicknamed by utility crews for his looks – will be waiting for a new ride only if the city thinks the effect of a cop car along Highway 101 slows folks down.
“I think it works,” Buckwald said of the props. “Maybe the city can pick up a surplus Dodge Charger.”
The decoy cop car along the highway works. It used to get me even when I knew it was there!