If you’re in need of 8,500 jumbo straws, the city of Bend has you covered.

The sipping wares, each 7.75 inches long and contained in 17 boxes, are for sale on the city’s auction website. Typically, the site is used to sell equipment the city no longer has a need for, such as a worn-out police cruiser.

However, when The Tower, a restaurant at the Bend Municipal Airport, closed its doors, the city found itself with a number of items in good working order it nonetheless had little use for. In addition to the straws, the city is auctioning a refrigerated display case, a barbecue smoker, chairs and 25 rectangular plates.

Gwen Chapman, the city’s purchasing and public contracts manager, said the city joined the website in the summer of 2013. Before that, surplus supplies were auctioned off at an event held about once a year near the Bend Police Department headquarters. Chapman noted the in-person auctions attracted “a small but dedicated group of regulars.”

The website, she said, was intended to help the city reach a broader audience. So far it’s worked, with some city vehicles being sold to buyers as far away as Arizona and California.

Not everything the city wears down ends up on the website. For example, it would be hard, or maybe even ill-advised, to sell a fire engine to the general public. For such specialty property, the city goes through targeted dealers.

Also, when they know something is valuable, city employees will impose a minimum price on the auction instead of just starting with the lowest bid.

If something won’t budge off the auction block, the city also is allowed to donate objects to other government agencies. Of course, not everything is ripe for a donation.

Back in the days of the in-person auction, Chapman said, the city once sold a disassembled shed — sale price: $2,100 — that had been located on the grounds of Pilot Butte Cemetery.

“There was only a picture of what it was supposed to look like put together,” she noted. “There were no instructions.”

In the next few weeks, the city hopes to have some hybrid cars and old police vehicles up on the website.

As for the straws, they were priced at $20 Friday evening, although no one had bid on them. But there’s still time. According to the website, the auction ends April 20 at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

— Reporter: 541-633-2160, tleeds@bendbulletin.com