NRoute’s original buses, an ambulance and police cars top the list of surplus items up for sale Saturday in the city of Vicksburg’s auction at Halls Ferry Park.

The auction starts at 10 a.m.

“Jeff Martin Inc. Auctioneers of Brooklyn will be conducting the auction. We’ll have 80 vehicles, heavy equipment and office furniture,” purchasing director Ann Grimshel said, adding Warren County will also be participating. “Jeff Martin is the No. 1 auctioneer in the state, and he is on a state contract, so we’re piggybacking off the state.

Brittany Ross, marketing director for Jeff Martin, said the auction will include vehicles and equipment from other organizations, but would not release the names, citing confidentiality restrictions.

The city bought the six diesel-powered buses in 2006 to begin NRoute using a $488,000 federal grant.

“We may be adding one more from the second group of buses they bought,” city vehicle maintenance superintendent Barry Warnock said.

City Attorney Nancy Thomas said the board had to get approval from the federal government to declare the buses surplus and put them up for auction.

“The city bought the buses for NRoute using a federal transportation grant, and there was a clause in the grant covering what the city had to do if it decided to sell the buses,” she said.

Thomas added the clause also had a provision indicating if any of the buses sold for $5,000 or more, the city had to return some of that money to the federal government.

Besides the buses, Warnock said, the list of vehicles going up for sale include 24 police cars, an ambulance and fire department service truck, pickups and trailers. The heavy equipment includes three backhoes, a frontend loader, four tractors, a lift platform recently replaced by the Vicksburg Convention Center and tractors.

“We also have office furniture from the water treatment plant,” Grimshel said. “Most of it is from the 1980s and still in very good shape.”