By Travis Walker

Local business owner Clarence Brewer is worried about the future of his computer store because of a recent policy decision by UK.

Brewer, a UK alumnus and owner of Computer Pieces and Parts, has relied on surplus computers from UK to build and sell computers at prices below market value.

But the university stopped selling in February 2008, when UK enacted a contract with computer company Dell to have them take all surplus computers, clean the hard drives of information and dispose of them.

He and other computer business owners such as Orvill Baker, owner of Baker Surplus in Versailles, Ky. are concerned about the increasing difficulty of building used computers at a lower cost.

Dell charged the university $19 per computer and to date they have taken 4,370 computers, said Ben Crutcher, UK’s associate vice president for auxiliary services. This amounts to $83,030 spent on this program since February

Brewer now has to buy the parts necessary to run his business from other venues. He said last year he spent $3,300 on computers and parts from the UK surplus auctions and this year, since the auctions stopped carrying computers, he has spent $10,900 acquiring parts. Now he is worried that he will have to mark up his prices.

“I know the people I sell to aren’t going to be able to afford my computers anymore,” Brewer said.

Crutcher said UK stopped selling the computers at auction and began working with Dell to get rid of surplus computers because Dell’s program ensures that all potentially sensitive data, such as student records and medical records, is removed from the hard drive.

Crutcher also said that by the time UK invests the resources and manpower into cleaning all of the surplus hard drives it ends up costing more than what Dell charges to do it.

“We found it was more cost-effective to pay Dell to do it,” Crutcher said

Crutcher found out Tuesday UK will no longer be paying Dell to take away surplus computers. UK will begin using Creative Recycling Systems Inc. to get rid of surplus computers, a company Kentucky already uses to get rid of surplus computers. Creative Recycling has facilities in several states including one in Louisville, according to the company’s Web site.

Creative Recycling will take the surplus computers from UK, clean the hard drives and ensure that the computers are disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner, Crutcher said. They will also pay UK for the computers.

Jim Kristof, Creative Recycling’s vice president of sales and procurement, estimated Creative Recycling would pay UK about $7 for each computer they take. He went on to say that they are able to pay for the computers because they recover some of the money from the precious materials the computers are broken down to. They also reuse some computers.

Brewer said the news of Creative Recycling’s policy of paying for the computers helps mitigate the issue somewhat for him but he still has concerns.

“It can’t hurt because at least they’re not paying someone to (take the computers),” Brewer said.

When told about the $7 price Creative Recycling would be paying, Brewer said jokingly, “I’ll give them $10.”