SNOW HILL– An online auction resulted in a high bid of $31,000 for the county’s synthetic ice rink.
In May, Worcester County listed its synthetic ice rink on govdeals.com. The auction ended May 22 with a high bid of $31,001.02 for the rink.
“It’s roughly half what the taxpayers paid for an idea that was not fulfilled,” Commissioner Chip Bertino said. “At least the taxpayers recouped some of what they expended.”
At the start of the year, the commissioners agreed to cease operations of the synthetic ice rink, which the county purchased for about $70,000 in 2019. Several of them said it was too expensive to set up and wasn’t utilized enough. At that point, staff advised them they could donate it, sell it on the online auction site govdeals.com or solicit bids for it. They voted 4-3 at the time to solicit bids.
When advised in April no bids were received, the commissioners voted 4-3 to list the ice rink on the online auction site govdeals.com.
Such a waste when something shiny grabs a council members eye. Then they “think, believe or guesses” it will work….without researching or asking constitutes.
$70k paid, 4 yrs later sell and get $31k.
That is fiscal mismanagement. Same with boat sitting going nowhere.
Huge waste of taxpayer monies.
Again, this failure has the fingerprint of Tom Perlozzo all over it, just like the Black-Eyed Susan riverboat or
whatever it’s called. Mr. Perlozzo has wasted more taxpayer money to help his mistress and other friends than anyone else in the history of Maryland, with the possible exception of Marvin Mandel.
Too bad poor government financial decisions only have consequences every four years.