February 1, 2006

Representatives from all three local phone books appeared at a community meeting at the Woodland Park Library on Wednesday, Jan. 25.

The meeting was organized by Dennis Cheaqui, owner of Great Divide Printing, in order to provide people the opportunity to meet and talk with the companies.

"We don't need more than one phone book for Teller County and Ute Pass," Cheaqui said. "This is an open forum to ask if there is anything we can do. I'm just here to start things rolling, to get communication between businesses."

Many small business owners in the area, like Cheaqui, do not want to have to buy ads in more than one phone book. But, they don't want their ads left out of the other phone books. The expense of advertising then becomes a burden.

Cheaqui and others want the community to chose a phone book. But, free enterprise and the pursuit of the American dream forbids preventing a business from opening, as long as it follows state and city regulations.

Those in attendance were Melody Legrant, owner of Desert Bloom, Alex Ackermann and others of MacVan, which is printing MacVan 1 Source and Mike Sego, president of Echo Pages.

Legrant came out of hiding to tell people the Ute Pass Gold Book would be delivered in February. She apologized for not returning phone calls and for not communicating with her customers while she struggled to get a phone list.

"You want to run and hide," she said. "That's my biggest mistake."

Legrant said she had trouble gathering all the white-page listings. Now more than seven months late, she said the printer received the listings in mid-January, which brings into question the statements Legrant made last year when she said on more than on occasion the book was at the printer.

Ackermann and Sego both said they did not have trouble with white-page listings. Neither wanted to comment publicly on Legrant's excuse for being late.

Legrant did receive a couple of supportive comments from local business owners who were in the audience of about 35 people.

But she also received criticism. She was asked why the community should have confidence in her because of the broken promises.

She said she has been with the Gold Book for 14 years and has always published the phone book, which has been around for 30 years.

Next up was Ackermann of MacVan.

"We think there should be one phone book in Woodland Park," he said. "We're frustrated."

Ackermann said MacVan staff decided to publish a phone book after hearing numerous complaints about the lateness of the Gold Book, as well as requests from current customers to print a phone book.

Sego of Echo Pages said they had been looking at Teller County for a while as a possible location for one of its phone books. The lateness of the Gold Book prompted the company to jump in the mix sooner.

"We have a great product," he said. "We help local businesses grow."

Both Ackermann and Sego said they assumed, like many, the Gold Book would not be printed.

Legrant said on Monday, "There was an opening, and they took it. 1 can't blame them for that."

A few comments about MacVan and Echo Pages not being local companies were directed toward Ackermann and Sego.

Ackermann said MacVan, out of Colorado Springs, has been involved with the Teller County community for years, including the Woodland Park chamber of commerce.

A question of commitment to how long the companies would stay in the area was asked. All three phone book representatives said their companies would be printing phone books this year, as well as next year. But the question of this area financially supporting three phone books is yet to be answered.

Ackermann was the only one of the three who brought up the underlying theme of the meeting - picking a phone book for the community.

"You can pull together and make a community endorsement," he said. "The community needs to decide."

With all three phone books scheduled to print this year -The Gold Book with business ads that are more than seven months old, Echo Pages with free ads and MacVan relying on its reputation of quality - the community will let its fingers do the walking.

After the meeting Cheaqui said, "I'm happy with how it went."

Now, he and the rest of the community have a year to figure out how to get down to one phone book.

Will it be a communitywide decision? A boycott of one or more of the books? Or will it be customer service that creates a successful phone book?

The question will only be answered when businesses owners place their advertising dollars in the yellow pages.

By Joel Quevillon

SOURCE: Ute Pass Courier