Kens Auction Service Faces Loss of Conditional Use Permit

Long-time Springdale auctioneer Ken Warner, owner of Ken’s Auction Service at 105 Spring St., said he and his supporters will be at next month’s meeting of the Springdale Planning Commission, when his conditional use permit will be up for a public hearing.

Warner said he inadvertently violated his permit by hosting additional auctions on Thursdays, which, according to the bylaws of his arrangement under C-3 zoning, is not allowed. Warner said he can only have auctions on Fridays and Saturdays.

A representative of the Community Engagement division of the Public Works Department, the city branch that issued the citation, could not be reached for comment.

The auction house is well known for having auctions every Friday evening, and items ranging from Persian rugs to silver coins are sold to the highest bidder. But Warner said his business started growing, so instead of having more auctions on Saturdays, and thus competing with other auctioneers, from the beginning of the year he started having additional auctions on Thursdays.

Warner said the violations were unintentional, and once he received notice from the city that violations had occurred, he shut the Thursday auctions down. Warner has been an auctioneer for decades, but has owned the location on Spring Street since March 2006, when he bought it for $75,000.

Depending on how the hearing and subsequent negotiations go, Warner could lose his conditional use permit, thus his vow to appear at the hearing in force with his supporters.

“Hopefully nothing will come out of this,” he said.