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Competitive Bids Required to Sell Buses
By SHELLEY HANSON Staff Writer
POSTED: October 24, 2007
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WHEELING —The Ohio Valley Regional Transportation Authority today sold two, 2001 Goshen Sentry 24-passenger buses from its fleet for a total of $10,890.46.
OVRTA had been seeking bids on the two buses on the Internet auction site eBay during a seven-day auction that concluded this morning. OVRTA Executive Director Tom Hvizdos confirmed the West Virginia Division of Public Transit suggested OVRTA sell its old buses on the site.
Public transit companies in West Virginia are required to use a competitive bid process when selling property, but they do not have to advertise those sales.
Susan O’Connell, director of West Virginia Division of Public Transit, said Tuesday bus companies across the state were told by the division that eBay could be used to sell buses, in addition to other methods of seeking competitive bids, such as auto auctions or sealed competitive bids.
“There isn’t any rule about a legal notice. ... There’s no rule about that, as long as they do it competitively,” she noted.
Until this past summer, OVRTA had sought competitive bids by advertising bus sales in newspapers, Hvizdos noted.
“We try to get the best price using a competitive process. ... It has to be a competitive process, and that’s what we do,” Hvizdos said.
The OVRTA buses, most of which are purchased partly with federal funding, are sold after they have surpassed their “useful life” — criteria for which depends on the size of a bus and its age or mileage.
The two sold today are 2001 models and hold 24 passengers each. One has 149,150 miles on it, and the other has 175,729 miles.
Hvizdos said, OVRTA will keep 7.5 percent of the profit. The remainder will go back to the West Virginia Division of Public Transit, which will use the money to help other transit authorities purchase buses in the future. The West Virginia Division of Public Transit is the pass-through agency for federal funding disbursed to OVRTA and other bus companies in the state.
Six other buses sold via eBay this summer also had reached the end of their useful life, Hvizdos said.
The OVRTA board approved allowing Hvizdos to sell buses as he saw fit during its July 11, 2006, meeting, Hvizdos said.
He noted that during the July 30, 2007, meeting, the board was updated about the eBay sales. Four buses were sold for the following amounts to a man in Florida: $2,601, $2,425, $2,225 and $2,600. Another bus was sold for $3,000 to a person in North Carolina, and the sixth was sold for $4,500 to a person in Virginia. Hvizdos declined to release the names of the winning bidders, saying he did not know if he was legally allowed to do so.
However, in the old method of selling the buses, bids received on paper were opened and read aloud during a bid opening meeting that was open to the public. The date of the bid opening also was advertised, along with the sale of the buses, he confirmed.
O’Connell said she could not speak to why Hvizdos would not release the bidders’ names, but she noted the state transit division did not regulate that particular matter.
She added, though, that there have been times when a public agency in need, such as a fire department, has requested a bus company sell them a vehicle — that has been allowed but is not a common practice, she noted.
Hvizdos said the new method of sale actually has opened the process up to more people, which means there are more bidders. Using eBay, he said, can maximize the profit, which eventually benefits the bus company and state transit division.
OVRTA is governed by a board, members of which represent the municipalities that are taxed by OVRTA. The Federal Transit Authority audits OVRTA every three years.
Officials with other local transit companies could not be reached at press time for comment on their methods of bus sales.
Anyone can bid on a bus up for auction on eBay, including the Ohio County Commission, which is contemplating providing bus service from Elm Grove to the county’s new retail development site, The Highlands. There has been some contention on the OVRTA board about whether the bus company should provide service to the site. Some say it may be fiscally irresponsible to do so, while others say they simply want a trial run to test ridership.
Because of the OVRTA board’s inaction, county commissioners are expected to consider purchasing their own bus — possibly one of those being auctioned by OVRTA on eBay — to begin a trial run to The Highlands.
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