Surplus supply sale at Annex building draws at least 60 people
LA GRANDE — It is a question that may never be fully answered.
Still it was one that people visiting the La Grande School District’s Annex building for a surplus supply sale on Friday, April 26, enjoyed pondering. The sale they were attending was being conducted to give the public a chance to buy items stored in the aging Annex building before it is torn down later this year.
One of the items purchased there was a bomb hoist once owned by the U.S. Navy. The device is one that the Navy used for decades to help load planes and aircraft carriers with bombs.
“It was the most unusual item anyone bought," said Brad Sunderman, the La Grande School District’s plant operations and custodial manager.
Sunderman told people at the sale the bomb hoist was a number of surplus items the U.S. Navy donated to the La Grande School District many years ago.
What was it used for by the school district?
Sunderman is not sure but believes it may have been used to help lift items for school theater productions long ago. Sunderman noted the Annex building once had a stage for theater productions on the south end of its gym.
The bomb hoist was purchased by Brian Jones, a Navy veteran who bought it because it had special meaning for him because of his military background. Jones explained that he worked with bomb hoists while in the Navy.
The bomb hoist was in one of the 12 rooms off a 200-foot hallway on the ground floor of the Annex building, above a gym now used for La Grande Middle School physical education classes and which once served as La Grande High School’s gym.
The Annex gym building, which opened in 1936, will be torn down this summer and will be replaced by the Wildcat Center. The Wildcat Center, just east of the Annex gym, will have three gyms and six classrooms and is set to open in August. It is being built with money from a $4.845 million bond voters approved in 2022 and $4 million matching grant the La Grande School District received from the state.
The surplus sale was limited to rooms off the 200-foot hallway on the ground floor. The rest of the building was off limits to the public. Many of the items sold included desks, tables, file cabinets and chairs. Some of the desks were purchased by schools and school districts in the region, Sunderman said.
Jody Bullock purchased a glass enclosed school lunch menu reader board. She said that shopping at the sale was a delightful experience and not only because she found items she could make good use of. Bullock explained that seeing so many items from the distant and recent past was captivating.
“This is history," she said.
Marty Marvel bought a rolling coffee cart at the sale one that he pushed to his home across from the Annex building. Marvel plans to put it to good use in his shop.
“I’m going to make it into a rolling workbench," he said.
Dan Sheehy also had shop work on his mind when he purchased a drill press, one he believes may have been made in the 1950s.
He is optimistic that he will be able to use the drill press despite its age.
“I can still buy parts for it," Sheehy said.
The cost of the items sold at the event ranged from $1 to $50, Sunderman said he kept items as reasonably priced as possible.
The gym and other parts of the upper level of the Annex were closed to the public during sale but no complaints were heard.
“People were pretty happy about it," Sunderman said of the event in general.
This was not the final time the Annex building will be open to the public before it is torn down. Portions of it will be open for a personal salvage session later. It will be similar to one conducted in 2023 in the school district’s old maintenance building before it was torn down. That event drew about 70 people and everything was available for no charge.
