The Only Bidder Pulled Out Four Hours Before Closing
ITHACA, N.Y. — The city has reopened its two-year fluoridation supply tender.
The only bidder withdrew four hours before the 31 July deadline.
The firm told us it pulled out over a 72-hour emergency delivery clause added to this year's specification. Its withdrawal letter is in the public tender file and gives the same reason in the same words.
The procurement office says the clause will be reviewed and the tender will run again in September. Nothing in the file suggests anything else happened. We looked, because eleven readers wrote within a day of the notice going up.
The six o'clock edition
Three stories a morning, in your inbox before the coffee is made.
Sources & Method
Inspected the public tender file; wrote to the bidder; compared its answer to its withdrawal letter. They match.
Who we spoke to
- City procurement office, Municipal record. Public tender file, inspected in person 6 August 2026
- The withdrawn bidder, A chemical supply firm. Written questions; response received same day 6 August 2026 Says it withdrew over a delivery-window clause it could not meet.
What we could not confirm
- Nothing outstanding. The withdrawal letter is in the public tender file and gives the same reason the firm gave us.
How was this story?
We publish the result, whatever it is. Reader verdicts appear on the front page and in our newsroom metrics.
Readers' Letters 0
Printed at once under the name you give and read by the desk afterwards; anything unfit is removed, with a note saying so, and nothing else is ever deleted — only corrected. Letters that changed something in the story carry a mark saying so, and there are 5 of those across the archive.