LYNNWOOD
It didn’t take Derek Thompson long to spot the perfect thing.
It was a stainless steel table, about six feet long and 30 inches wide. While in use in Lynnwood High School’s kitchen, the table’s surface likely saw its share of chicken entrails and chocolate pudding powder that’s prone to poof up out of its bag in breeze-fueled plumes.
Thompson saw another purpose: a sturdy surface on which to tinker with airplane parts. The retired finance manager has spent his retirement years in pursuit of a small airplane, piece by piece.
“I paid $275 for the table,” he said. “Anywhere else, would cost a lot more.”
The table was one of hundreds of items up for auction June 26 as Lynnwood High School cleaned out its closets and prepared to move to its new $99 million building east of I-5. The building could be demolished to make way for a shopping center. A Texas developer plans to meet with school district officials in July to discuss options.
On Friday, restaurateurs looking for industrial stand mixers, refrigerators and a host of other machines and paraphernalia were in luck: most of the items on auction were from the school’s kitchen. Wood shop tools and office items were also up for grabs.
Most of the goods came from Lynnwood High School, but some of it was from other schools in the district, said DJ Jakala, a spokeswoman for the Edmonds School District, which includes the high school.
Many people who stopped by the auction planned to use the kitchen equipment in their own restaurants or small businesses. Doug Finley and Ken Longfellow snagged a can opener and a long steel table for The Bush School, a private school in Seattle. Lana Neumann eyed a well-worn butcher’s block set atop study metal legs. Her plan was to buy it and put it up for sale in her Seattle shop, Deja Neu, which specializes in industrial-style home decor.
Auctioneers extolled some of the items: giant mixers, used only five days a week, and rarely if ever for a busy dinner service; stainless steel tables with stainless steel legs (“That really makes the difference”); plates in stacks of 20 or more, available for just a few dollars.
Even the school’s flagpole wasn’t safe from the auctioneer’s cry. Bob Myers, an officer with the Lynnwood Police Department who had served on school grounds for years, hoped no one else wanted it.
“It would be nice to have a little piece of memorabilia from this school,” he said.
Krista J. Kapralos writes for the Herald of Everett.
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