By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — The city’s annual report will be produced in a smaller format this year, in a 6-inch by 9-inch size, verses the former 8.5-inch by 11-inch version, with the production handled by printingcenterusa.com.
City Manager Jim Bennett advised councilors at their Sept. 3 meeting that “for the past four years, County Qwik Print has consistently been the lowest bidder for printing the report, with an average price of $2.68 per book. This year the price increased significantly to $4.35 per book (8.5×11, black and white, with a color cover).”
Bennett said this would “far exceed the annual budget of $1,500” for the project and would limit the order to just 340 copies.
“I try to shop local vendors whenever possible. I considered PrintWorks. However, they have consistently been too expensive in the past. Last year they quoted $4.83 per book (8.5×11, black and white book with full color cover), which is more than CQP quoted last year,” he said.
In the interest of spending taxpayer dollars responsibly, Bennett said he decided to “shop around for alternative printing options.”
“Bestbookprinting.com and printingcenterusa.com both offer reputable services. Bestbookprinting.com does offer some very competitive prices for 8.5×11, black and white books. However, printingcenterusa.com has an affordable full-color book option,” explained Bennett.
Upon reviewing printingcenterusa.com’s sample materials, Bennett found them to be “high quality, the prices include shipping and they offer a 10 percent new customer discount. I found that I am able to purchase a 6×9 full-color book for $2.90 per book, allowing me to order the standard 500 books for under $1,500.”
In an effort to purchase local, Bennett emailed CQP noting the budget limitations and asking for any other options they might have.
“I received an email response from Dave Levesque on Aug. 28 stating that they would do the print job for $1,595 — $95 over our budget. This would be an 8×10 book with the first 20 pages in full color and the rest in black and white,” said Bennett. “They print from PDF and guarantee a turnaround of seven days.”
Bennett then suggested going with the 6×9 version from printingcenterusa.com.
“We could have them available within a week or two,” said Bennett.
“I’ve had a chance to look through — found the sample to be interesting, concise, lots of pics, not boring. It’s very engaging compared to the past format. I’m for this,” said Councilor Craig Green.
No formal approval was needed from councilors and, seeing there was unanimous agreement for going with printingcenterusa.com, Bennett said he’d move the project along. Annual reports will be available at City Hall for those wishing to pick up a copy.
