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Screenshot clouds auction story
Jul 19, 2019 12:32 am
Sarah Trafton at Columbia-Greene Media updates the ever-changing story from Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden about a recent online auction of county items that has been called both unauthorized and allowed. Last week Groden said he did not know who was auctioning off parts of the former Greene County Sheriff's office attached to the former jail in Catskill without authorization. He said the online auctions for kitchen equipment had been approved, but nothing else. “I haven’t determined how we went from kitchen equipment to wood molding,” Groden said at the time. Then, a few days later, Groden claimed he had approved the sale of various architectural details from the county sheriff's former office on Bridge Street in the village of Catskill. “I actually authorized it in an email I must have read at 80 miles an hour,” Groden said. “In parentheses there was wooden windows and doors that I must not have caught.” The email was sent from the Greene County Sheriff’s Office, he said. “I responded and told them to proceed,” he said. “I told the board I take full responsibility for it.” But now a screenshot that the newspaper says was from the online auction lists “Vintage Windows, Doors, Radiators, Floors, Molding & More,” which seems like many types of items that Groden has not publicly disclosed approving. It is unclear how many items were sold at the online auction, how much money was raised, and where those funds went. But Groden wants the items that were not supposed to be sold back. “We are asking the winners to return the items,” Groden said. “They won fair and square, so it is the purchaser’s option.” Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.