Nacogdoches County to scrap equipment left in weeds over a decade

NACOGDOCHES, Texas (KTRE) - County Judge Greg Sowell says it’s time for a Spring Cleaning in Nacogdoches County with many items around several agencies being approved to become surplus or salvage.

“We just went through an inventory period where we went over every piece of property that the county owns,” Sowell said. “And there’s a considerable amount of things that need to be disposed of that had either not been used or in a workable condition for many years.”

And when he says many of the items haven’t been working for years, he means it, as some of the equipment have been sitting in weeds for over a decade, like a forklift at the Nacogdoches County Sheriff’s Office.

“I don’t know where it even came from, but it’s been sitting behind the sheriff’s office 15 years in the weeds,” Sowell said.

The county also received military surplus trailers that they had used for storage, but with them suffering from leaks for over a decade, they’ve been sitting unused.

“I still don’t know how they’re going to remove them because some of them don’t even have any wheels on them,” Sowell said.

All the equipment comes from several county groups, like Constables of Precinct 1 and 4, the Nacogdoches Exposition and Civic Center, the sheriff’s office, computer services and emergency operations.

With all the items exhausting any use for the county according to Sowell, they’ll take a closer look at what can be salvaged.

“Now the property that is deemed to able to be sold will of course be sold at auction,” Sowell said. “If it’s completely out of repair and wouldn’t bring anything at an auction, then we’re authorized to sell it for scrap purposes.”

While the Nacogdoches County Commissioners Court has the final say on scrapping any equipment, Sowell says everything is up to departments to bring to their attention.

“We don’t make the decision. It’s the individual department heads and the individual elected officials that say, ‘Hey, I have this item,’” Sowell said.

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