By Michael Hill
Correspondent
Fort Monmouth’s 20,000 square foot canvas bubble that withstood Superstorm Sandy now belongs to Sal Amato who owns Soccer Palace in West Orange.
Amato says he got the bubble for a reasonable $40,000.
Just one of thousands of items up for grabs after the government shut down the Army base three years ago.
Rick Harrison heads the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority. He said, “We’ve got full dormitory suites, beds, commercial laundry equipment, individual air conditioning units, that kind of thing.”
At first, the bidders weren’t biting — not with the opening bid of $100,000 for a set of rooftop industrial heating and cooling equipment.
Auctioneers split up the lot and only then did they get bids.
“We consider the value to be zero because we got it for free from the Army,” Harrison said.
That means bargains for bidders and buyers.
Sherwin Delande won the bid for $3,000 for the metal wind breaker atop the old FBI building here but also had his eye on the copper pipes.
“A lot of it for reuse in the homes we build and we do a lot of commercial work for the government, a lot of it we;re going to reuse,” he said.
The auctioneers group is holding three auctions here — not the buildings that likely will be demolished. The land is the big fish.
The revitalization Authority was finalizing the winning bid for the primed 55 acres here facing Route 35 but near the end found out the couple had recently donated money to Gov. Chris Christie and that disqualified their bid.
Bids of $17,000 or more have to be vetted for political connections to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
Harrison says he grew up near the base and Fort Monmouth has a rich history.
“This was the home of the signal core radar invented here, the radar that actually worked out on North Oahu Dec. 7, 1941 was invented here at Fort Monmouth. The first signal bounced off moon came out of Fort Monmouth,” said Harrison.
Now, pieces of Fort Monmouth’s history are up for grabs.