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Cheektowaga sells its town hovercraft

The odyssey of the Cheektowaga hovercraft may finally come to an end, pending approval of town board.

CHEEKTOWAGA, NY- The Cheektowaga hovercraft has been sold.

A one-week online auction conducted by Cash Realty and Auctions concluded Sunday with the highest bid coming in at $16,100 for both the hovercraft and the trailer to haul it.

Town Supervisor Diane Benczkowski tells 2 On Your Side that she will now prepare a resolution that would authorize the town board to approve the sale to the highest bidder.

The town bought the hovercraft brand-new for $70,000 in 2011 with the idea that it could be used by the highway department to maintain waterways or even to rescue stranded Thruway motorists during winter storms.

But not long after buying it, the town learned the New York State DEC wouldn’t let them use it (for its primary intended purpose of clearing debris from swollen and flood-prone streams) unless the town took the costly extra measure of installing ramps for it to access the water, the design and construction of which (due to environmental regulations) made the hovercraft’s use cost-prohibitive.

The town then tried to sell the hovercraft at a surplus equipment auction in 2014. The high bid of roughly $11,000 was not to the town’s liking, so it was kept.

Then, this past April, the town board approved the sale of the hovercraft to a dealer in Illinois for $20,000. However, that deal fell through for reasons which remain uncertain.

The town then made a renewed effort to sell the unusual piece of surplus equipment, which for seven years sat mostly unused, by hosting a demonstration of it at a town park in July.

"I think we got a great price for it," said Diane Benczkowski, who was not the town supervisor when the town purchased the hovercraft. "We tried other methods and that didn't materialize so yes we'll be happy to see it go," she said.

According to its listing for auction, the hovercraft had less than 33 hours of use on it.

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