Topeka ? Bill Hartman brags about bargains he finds at his favorite supply warehouses.

One item he couldn’t pass up in 1997 was hundreds of bolts of fire-retardant muslin fabric, once used to make tents for soldiers in Vietnam. Now, that fabric adorns the windows of dormitories at Emporia State University as draperies.

Hartman is the university’s director of buildings, utilities and maintenance, and he likes to shop at state and federal surplus property warehouses. He and other officials were on hand Tuesday to celebrate new quarters for both.

Those quarters are in buildings within walking distance of each other on the grounds of the former Topeka State Hospital for the mentally ill, which closed the same year Hartman found his deal on muslin. The warehouses are only a few minutes south of an Interstate 70 exit in central Topeka.

“It’s been a great help in reducing our costs,” Hartman said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

The state Department of Administration runs both the state and federal surplus property programs, though until April, they were in buildings on opposite ends of the former Forbes Field air base, south of Topeka.

Together, sales of all surplus property top $6 million annually. The odder stuff – Hartman’s muslin, fuel oil, medical equipment – is in the federal inventory.