This week, a local firm lost a sale to Great Bend USD 428 when the school district went with a lower bidder.Contract Paper Group in Uniontown, Ohio, bid $21,154.40, which was $928.80 (about 4.4 percent) less than the bid from Office Products Inc. of Great Bend’s proposed $22,083.20. Following the district policy, the low bidder was chosen because the expenditure was for more than $20,000 and there was more than 1 percent difference ($211.54 in this case).If the bids had been taken by Barton Community College, it would have been a different story. BCC policy states, “No purchase shall be made except on the basis of quality, cost, and service.