By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- The Town Council decided to continue its sponsorship of professional fisherman Chris Flint of Potsdam for another two years.

The board agreed 4-0 to a $6,000 deal with Flint.

They will use casino compact funds, according to their resolution.

“This is tailor-made to compact money,” Town Supervisor Joseph Gray said.

He told the board that he will put the town’s new logo and website on the front doors of his truck that he drives to tournaments, and in the center of his boat.

“You get about 100 impressions for every mile you drive. This year, I’m going to do 15,000 miles,” Flint said.

He also promotes the town on his personal website and when he talks to other anglers and outdoor enthusiasts while on the road.

He told the board the town could expose itself to a wider audience if they tied social media in with ad campaigns.

Flint was one of several people that ran a booth at a recent sportsmen’s show in Springfield, Mass.

Both he and local angler Don Meissner told the board that they need to keep promoting the town and its natural resources.

“Our greatest resource in this area is our natural resource – all this water and land,” Meissner said. “We have this wonderful thing to offer and no one knows about it.”

The two fishermen and the board talked about marketing Massena not just as a vacation destination, but as a base to explore other offerings in the North Country and Canada.

“That’s what we need to talk about - Massena can be a base for a lot of different things,” he said, noting the close proximity of the Adirondacks, Lake Placid, the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Resort, Montreal and Ottawa.