Happy New Year! Where did 2013 go?

The start of the year means we at the newspaper have to turn at least part of our attention to the production of the Fountain Hills & Verde Communities Telephone Directory.

The phone book is just one of the family of publications that are produced by your hometown publishing company, Western States Publishers, Inc.

The company was started in early 1974 with the intention of publishing multiple community newspapers in new town developments in a variety of states.

As it turned out, Fountain Hills was the first of these ventures and the development of the new community was slower than anticipated. The paper did not break even until its eighth year.

In the meantime, in order to make payroll and cover the bills, my mentor, Arthur Hewitt, and I started the phone book. It was profitable from the first year and has been ever since.

Western States has been publishing the phone book since 1977. In recent years advertising has declined somewhat from the pre-cell phone days. Some people say, “Who uses phone books any more?”

Well, I know that our book gets used in our community. We get positive feedback from residents and advertisers that they do use it. We hardly go through a week without someone coming in and asking for a copy for their business or home.

It is a part of the local culture. People in the Fountain Hills area are in the habit of using our book to find information on a business or to find a local phone number.

So when you see the 2014 version of the Fountain Hills and Verde Communities Telephone Directory in your driveway next March, don’t automatically throw it away. There are many reasons you’ll be glad you kept it.

Kip Kirkendoll, our company business manager, over sees the phone book production each year. She and her assistant, Tammie Ott, make every effort to provide our readers with accurate information that is updated each year through a variety of sources including coupons printed throughout the fall months in The Times.

Where they might find discrepancies in listing information, they will call to verify the correct information.

The final coupon for changes in this year‘s phone book appears on Page 7B of this week’s Times. We ask that if you have moved or changed your number for any reason, you should take the time to fill out the coupon and return it to us by this Friday, Jan. 3.

We ask that anyone that has changed from a land line to a cell phone should also fill out the coupon and return it.

Reputable businesses in the area are much more likely to advertise in the local phone book than online.

The deadline for advertising Is Jan. 10. Call Duke, Brent or John, 837-1931, for assistance.

They can also talk to you about our online version of the phone book.

There’s much more information in the phone book than just names, phone numbers and addresses. There is general information that is updated every year, names of government officials, and other important numbers on Page 1. They couldn’t be easier to find.

There is a map with an index to all of the streets. The map can come in handy when looking for garage sales or open houses and your GPS is on the fritz, In fact, you can pick up an additional copy for your car when the books come out in March.

For those of us who are somewhat technically challenged, the phone book fits right in our comfort zone. You don’t need electricity or any special device to use a phone book.

So I’ve given you plenty of reasons why the phone book is still used. Now staff, let’s get busy putting it together.