Citizen Printing House Grows Its Offerings
Citizen Printing House Grows Its Offerings
Family business adds matting and framing to its menu of services
One of the oldest print shops in the Southern Tier, Citizen Printing House at 99 W. Main St. in Allegany has worked hard to meet the ever-evolving needs of the business community for over 100 years. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuant supply-chain challenges, Citizen Printing continues to offer personal, professional printing services. Now, owner Lynda Dunn is pleased to announce a new service for customers: matting and framing.
Originally named Enterprise Printing Shop, the business began in 1896 in the basement of the current Knights of Columbus building at 3 W. Main St. The office later moved to its current location, where it became the home of the Allegany Citizen newspaper. After the newspaper issued its final edition in 1976, the business was named Citizen Printing House. In 1989, Dennis Burton purchased the building for his engineering consulting firm and continued to operate the print shop. Today, the business is owned by Lynda Burton Dunn, Dennis’ daughter, who works with printer Edgar Monroe and technician Paul Zielinski to offer a variety of products and services including scanning, banners, brochures, letterheads, envelopes, business cards, programs, blueprints, postcards and more.
In 2019, Melissa Meyers, owner of The Ink Well, an art supply store located at 51 W. Main St., retired and closed the business, which had offered matting and framing services. “We picked up that service from the Ink Well about a year and a half ago,” Dunn explained. “With the way things were going with paper and COVID, we thought it would be a good idea to provide another service.”
An oil painter herself, Dunn is no stranger to the hunt for the perfect mat and frame, and she has been enjoying honing her technique with the software that she purchased as part of the matting and framing equipment from Meyers. Dunn works with a wholesale supplier for mats and frames: “We have a good variety of samples that people can choose from when they stop in,” Dunn explained. “As long as materials are in stock, we can get them pretty easily, but supply chain issues make it tough. Backordered items can take awhile to arrive.”
Indeed, toilet paper has not been the only high-demand paper product since spring of 2020. “Paper in general isn’t all that available,” Dunn pointed out. “There’s a high demand for paper pulp, which is also used to make cardboard. With all the online buying, companies need more boxes to ship orders.”
Dunn noted that supply chain issues have also created challenges. She said, “Some paper comes from Europe, although we’re the number two manufacturer of paper pulp. It’s a daily ‘check your paper prices’ situation.”
While certain types of paper are scarce, Dunn said that Citizen Printing has a fairly fast turn-around time as long as the paper is available. For matting and framing jobs, Dunn encourages customers to provide a few weeks’ lead time, in case items are backordered.
Those seeking Citizen Printing House’s matting and framing services can stop in anytime during normal business hours: Monday through Thursday from 9:00am-5:00pm. “Friday afternoons are typically when I do the bulk of the matting and framing work,” Dunn explained, “but people can stop in between 9:00am and 1:00pm on Fridays to bring in their pictures or artwork.” For more information, visit www.citizenprintingonline.com or call 716-373-1117.