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Drive away with a real odd bargain Mail Tribune / Mark Freeman ODOT right of way agent Terry Miller resets an air-compressor hose that is part of an old Medford gas-station building that ODOT will auction July 13. Gas station�s up for auction, but plan on doing some heavy lifting By Mark Freeman Hey, buddy. Wanna buy a gas station? Here�s one that could be yours for as little as $500, provided you haul off everything from the doors and walls to the signs that warn you not to accidentally hang yourself from the bathroom�s cloth towel dispensers. This little classified ad comes from the Oregon Department of Transportation, which is embarking on this unusual type of garage sale as a way to cheaply get out from under an old Medford station that now stands in the way of progress. ODOT will auction off the 38-year-old Chevron gas station and mini-mart at 1901 Crater Lake Highway, which the agency bought to tear down and make room for the new Highway 238 extension project now underway near the Rogue Valley Mall. But instead of bulldozing the sheet metal and glass building, the agency hopes to sell it to the highest bidder at an 11 a.m. auction July 13 at the station. The catch is, you gotta get rid of all 1,774 square feet of it. Right down to the flame-orange power outlets, the porcelain urinals and a stunning blue-shag carpet with enough soaked-in oil that you could measure it with a dipstick. Chances are, someone out there will bite. "Things that don�t seem to have any value all of a sudden have value to someone," says Terry Miller, an ODOT right of way agent who is overseeing the station�s auction. "You find people who like to have unusual things. "This auction stuff," Miller says, "is a funny business." Come July 13, it will be serious business to potential bidders like A-1 Towing�s Jerry Yowman, who is one of at least five people who have expressed interest to Miller in buying the station. Yowman sees the station�s office, bathrooms and three vehicle bays (which include two hydraulic lifts) as a perfect shop for his Table Rock Road towing yard. Yowman says whoever gets the station can expect to spend about two weeks unbolting the metal panels and disassembling the iron frames. And the work is tough, Yowman says, so the faint of heart and the soft of hand need not bid. "This is nothing to play around with," Yowman says. "You gotta have the forklifts and equipment to do it." ODOT purchased the gas station, and bought or is negotiating to buy several other properties along Crater Lake Highway to make room for its new $15.2 million extension of Highway 238 between Medford and Jacksonville, starting near the mall. "It�s in the way, so it�s coming out," Miller says. "We were going to bulldoze it. But if somebody�s willing to pay, it saves the taxpayers� money." The station�s buyer is responsible for the entire building and the canopy over the gas pumps. The buyer doesn�t get the pumps, nor is he responsible for removing the underground storage tanks or any environmental cleanup at the site. But you do get everything from the old air compressor and the $4 plastic mini-blinds to the large wood-and-glass garage doors and even the loose screws on the floor and a few old fan belts on the wall. "What you see," Miller says, "is what you get." The top bidder will pay cash or with a check, and also put up a $5,000 bond ODOT will use if the buyer leaves part or all of the building by the Aug. 13 deadline, Miller says. "It gives them an incentive," Miller says, "to get it off the property.�� Yowman is coy on how much he believes the building is worth, or how much he�ll pay. But come July 13, he says, someone will walk away owning an old gas station. "I�ll come down, watch the other people bidding," Yowman says, "and see what happens." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA