Your community guide in the Adirondack North Country since 1927

Jan. 1, 2008

Flynns acquire historic Meet the Town publication

SARANAC LAKE – A local author/publisher recently acquired the historic publication of Meet the Town, which has been in the DeMattos family for 38 years and in print since the Calvin Coolidge administration.

Andy Flynn, owner/operator of Hungry Bear Publishing and author of the history-based “Adirondack Attic” newspaper column and book series, has purchased Meet the Town with his wife, Dawn, from Jacques and Alice DeMattos, of Saranac Lake.

Meet the Town is an annual booklet that gives residents and visitors a snapshot of information about a specific community, including services, recreational opportunities, events, institutions, attractions, entertainment, sports activities and health-related services. The two editions – Saranac Lake and Lake Placid/Wilmington – are distributed by local businesses and public facilities.

“We are honored to take the baton of community publishing and begin running Meet the Town, which has served the Tri-Lakes region for the past 80 years,” said Andy Flynn after signing the purchase agreement on Dec. 31, 2007 in the offices of Nicastro & Cantwell in Saranac Lake. “Since the 1920s, visitors have found Meet the Town useful, and residents of Saranac Lake, Lake Placid and Wilmington have proudly handed out the booklets to show off their home towns.”

In 1927, the late Thomas W. Sheridan produced the first issue of Meet the Town for Saranac Lake, helping the many visitors of tuberculosis patients and townspeople find the finest establishments of that era. A year later, Sheridan published his first Lake Placid guide. In 1969, Jacques and Jeanne DeMattos, former owners of WNBZ-AM radio, purchased Meet the Town. Their son and daughter-in-law, Jacques and Alice, took over the business in 2000.

“We are pleased to pass Meet the Town to the Flynns, who are dedicated to the history of the Adirondacks and the continuation of Meet the Town,” said the younger Jacques DeMattos on New Year’s Eve.

The Flynns live in Saranac Lake. Dawn is a 1979 graduate of the Saranac Lake High School and works as a teller for Adirondack Bank. Andy is a 1987 graduate of the Tupper Lake High School works as the senior public information specialist at the New York State Adirondack Park Agency Visitor Interpretive Center in Paul Smiths. Both are veterans of the publishing industry. Dawn is the former assistant circulation manager at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, and Andy is the former managing editor of the Enterprise and Lake Placid News. They met at the Enterprise.

 

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