City Salt Supply

Article in the Journal about the salt supply. Apparently the city has an over abundance of salt and wants to sell the excess to other cities at a profit. Would the cities needing salt want to buy from Middletown with a price markup? If the price per ton almost doubled from last year, is it a good idea to sell the excess now , realizing that the city could pay double the price next year for the very same salt they are trying to unload this year? Help me here business people. Does this make sense or not? The city was suppose to buy 1200 tons for $55,000, but the salt supplier won't honor the purchase???? Didn't the city have a contract with the salt supplier? If so, doesn't the salt supplier have to honor the contract legally? Bressler in the county engineering office says the salt supply is short. If true, why wouldn't Middletown want to keep all they have, given the increased price per ton and the lack of supply? Why don't I understand the logic of these decisions?

I don't follow the need to sell something you have excess of at the moment, just to turn around and buy more of it later. Is there a problem storing the excess salt? Will the excess salt go bad? Do we want to sell it to the other cities that have a shortage just to do them a favor? I need to go get the paper out of my car before I ask to many stupid questions.  :)