United Mailing Direct, Eagle Press merge

Lynn Smith of United Mailing Direct

United Mailing Direct and Eagle Press, neighbors on First Street for more than a decade, merged at the beginning of this month.

The business owners -- Lynn Smith of United Mailing Direct and Scott Moon and Gary Reinhardt of Eagle Press -- had been talking for about six months, Smith said. "With this we have separate businesses under one roof. We eliminated a lot of overhead for both of us."

Eagle Press does personal and business printing, including brochures and business cards, envelopes and letterheads, newsletters and announcements. United Mailing Direct does statement printing and mailing for banks and other business customers. In business since 1997, it was a spinoff of United Micro Data, a company that used to generate microfiche for banks and businesses.

In the age of search engines and digital data, it might seem far-fetched that people not long ago let their fingers do the walking through drawers full of celluloid sheets then put them under projectors to get the information they were seeking. I won't say it was easy or fun, and I am not a Luddite, but I'm proud to say I was pretty good at it. Smith said they did the last such data reproduction last month.