Chain-saw bear tops county's surplus auction list

A 5-foot chain-saw carved bear that once delighted children at the Flathead County Library is perhaps the most unusual item on the county’s surplus auction list.

The county is conducting an online auction of surplus items that ends at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, May 31.

Kim Crowley, director of ImagineIF Libraries, the county library system, said a local business donated the wooden bear to the children’s department of the Kalispell library about 13 years ago. Normally such a donation would be cleared by the director or the library board, but this particular donation “slipped under the radar” of how donations routinely are made, she said.

The bear had a home in the children’s department for about eight years but eventually was moved into storage as the library was rebranded and more interactive activities were offered in children’s programming.

“The kids did like it,” Crowley said about the chain-saw bear. “It was kind of tippy, though, and I was always scared” it would topple over and cause an injury.

Other auction items are much more routine: wood and metal filing cabinets, bookshelves, cassette tapes, a color printer, portable air-conditioner and several Dell desk computers.

To see photos and descriptions of auction items go online to http://flathead.mt.gov/surplus.