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City selling RTC artifacts
Published 12:00pm Monday, May 4, 2009A summer auction will give area residents the chance to purchase assorted tools, medical equipment and office supplies once used at the Regional Treatment Center (RTC).
The RTC is currently home to roomfuls of discarded items formerly used in day-to-day operations at the facility — everything from crutches to wardrobes to giant kitchen mixers. It makes sense considering the property once functioned as its own community.
“This place was unbelievable — it was so self-sufficient,” said Guy Taylor, Fergus Falls assistant building inspector. “They had everything.”
That means there’s a lot to clear out before any development or demolition at the site begins. In February staff from State Operated Services facilities around Minnesota had their pick of RTC property.
“They took truck after truck of stuff and we’ve still got all this left,” Taylor said.
Starting in late February, city staff could claim RTC property for their departments. The fire department and Pebble Lake Golf Club received kitchen equipment, while parks and recreation and other public works departments benefited from hand tools, power tools and hardware like nails and screws. Staff are still in the process of removing copper piping from the facility’s basement.
But despite the visits from state and city staff, many tools, supplies and furnishings remain. Taylor, who has overseen work at the RTC since December, is organizing an auction tentatively scheduled for early to mid-June. The auction will be held at the RTC and will be publicized once the date is finalized. Taylor said he hopes to arrange for a Sentence to Serve crew to move auction items from the building and set up for the event.
“Anything that would be left over (from the auction) would either just be thrown away, salvaged…or just included in any demolition work that might be done,” Taylor said. “That would be included in the demo funds that have been set aside by the state for the city to use.”
Meanwhile, asbestos abatement has finished in the portion of the building formerly occupied by the chemical dependency facility. The property’s underground reservoir, incinerator and a tunnel leading to the nursing cottages are scheduled to be demolished this summer, all with state dollars.
The rest of the tunnel system will likely be demolished eventually, said City Engineer Dan Edwards, as the tunnels would not be used for any new utilities.
