SEAHAWKS
UPGRADE
OFFENSIVE
LINE DRAFT/3B
FOR WHOM
THE BELL
CHOIR TOLLS
HERMISTON/3A
Boehner calls
Cruz “Lucifer
in the fl esh”
NATION/2A
FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2016
140th Year, No. 140
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
Your Weekend
•
•
•
HERMISTON
Taxi
business
out of
service
Walla Walla Kennel
Club Annual Dog Show
Hermiston High School
FFA plant sale
Spring into Echo
city-wide yard sales
Umatilla Cab Company
now sole service in town
For times and places
see Coming Events, 6A
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Catch a movie
Patrick McManus and even Pend-
leton’s own former senator, Gordon
Smith, who wrote about the suicide
of his son, Garrett. During Dauble’s
seven-year stint before she left to
become librarian at Blue Mountain
Community College, she hosted author
Ken Kesey.
The store is a bit of a time capsule.
Not much has changed from the two
neon signs in the window to the ancient
refrigerator in the back room. Some
yellowed East Oregonian articles
about authors taped on the wall near
a tiny sink appeared during Dauble’s
ownership of the store and Dallas just
left them. A couple decades ago, she
fi nally bought a computer for the store.
One of the fi rst, an old Key computer
with a Princeton monitor still is used
for bookkeeping. Dallas said she
A year after the Hermiston
City Council voted to open
up taxi service in the city
to competition, Hermiston
seems to be down to one taxi
company again.
The phone number for
Hermiston Transit Services
has been disconnected
and the owners have not
responded to Facebook
inquiries about the compa-
ny’s status, and Hermiston
residents have reported
not being able to reach the
company for about a month.
Umatilla Cab Company,
the other service picking up
riders in Hermiston since the
city did away with Herm-
iston Transit’s exclusive
franchise, has seen its call
volume shoot up in the last
few weeks, owner Sundi
Marquez said.
“It’s a little bit over-
whelming,” she said.
The company is working
on adding more drivers and
cars to its six-person staff
to handle the increased
client load, but Marquez
said hiring qualifi ed drivers
and putting them through
the city’s background check
process takes time. People in
the meantime might have to
wait longer than they’re used
to for a cab.
“We
appreciate
the
patience while we iron out
the wrinkles,” she said.
She said calling ahead
to arrange rides instead of
saying “I have a doctor’s
appointment in 15 minutes”
helps. She also said contrary
to rumor, Hermiston Transit
has not combined with
Umatilla Cab Company,
so she doesn’t have any
answers for the people who
have called to ask why
Hermiston Transit’s dispatch
line no longer works.
Assistant city manager
Mark Morgan said Herm-
iston Transit Services still
has a license from the city to
operate, so if the business is
no longer taking calls, it is a
decision on their end.
In October, however, the
city revoked Hermiston Tran-
See BOOKS/10A
See TAXI/10A
Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP
Two friends posing as drug
dealers go to absurd ends
to rescue a cat in the
action comedy, “Keanu.”
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
For showtime, Page 5A
For review, Weekend EO
Armchair Books owner Terry Dallas sells a book to Nick Shackelford of San Jose, Calif., on Monday at
Armchair Books in Pendleton.
Weekend Weather
A farewell to Armchair
Fri
60/43
Sat
68/40
One dollar
Sun
75/49
Bookstore says ‘the
end’ after 34 years
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
HERMISTON
Precision
Irrigated
Ag Center
breaks
ground
Construction to fi nish
by early next year
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
As technology changes
the way farmers grow and
harvest crops, Blue Moun-
tain Community College is
training students to keep pace
with the evolving industry.
The next generation of
producers will have to know
how to use things like GPS,
drones and real-time soil
moisture monitors if they
want to get the most bang for
their buck. That’s precisely
what they’ll be taught at
BMCC’s new Precision
Irrigated
Agriculture
Armchair Books isn’t the fi rst small,
beloved bookstore to close in the wake
of e-books, chain stores and Amazon.
Owner Terry Dallas knows this, but
it doesn’t make her last week in oper-
ation any less bittersweet. The bell on
the store’s front door jingles frequently
as customers enter to peruse her few
remaining books. They tell her how
sorry they are to see the bookstore’s
existence come to an end. A few apol-
ogized for buying so many books from
Amazon.
Dallas steps away from the business
with reluctance, but she is candid about
the reason for the closure.
“There’s not enough business,” she
said. “There were too many days with
not even $100 in sales. It’s hard to pay
the light bill.”
Her worst day in recent memory?
“Forty-eight dollars and 48 cents,”
Dallas said of a day in February.
Since the advent of the Internet and
e-books, she said, many customers
have disappeared.
“I can’t imagine they stopped
reading — I fi gure they went online,”
she said. “Amazon sells books for less
than we can buy them for sometimes.”
Dallas smiles, however, when she
thinks of good days in the past, such as
four midnight parties for the release of
Harry Potter books.
“People would start sitting outside
on the sidewalk in the afternoon,” she
recalled. “They wanted to be fi rst in
line.”
While Dallas and her employees
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The shelves are becoming barren as customers have taken advantage
of the 30 percent discount on all books in a going out of business sale
at Armchair Books in Pendleton.
Say goodbye to Armchair
Owner Terry Dallas invites
patrons to drop by the store
Saturday from 2-4 p.m. to have
cake and champagne, share
stories about their favorite
books and authors, and say
goodbye after 34 years of
business in Pendleton.
rang up books, her son Christian and
some of his friends stood behind a
refreshment table, serving butter beer
(made with cream soda), powdered
vervain (nutmeg) and cookies
bearing a likeness of Harry Potter’s
lightning-shaped scar. A life-sized
cardboard cutout of Harry stood by.
Since 1990, when she bought
the store from original owner Darcy
Dauble, many authors have visited
the store, including Jane Kirkpatrick,
See AGRICULTURE/10A
PENDLETON
Listen to her
Women and girls share stories, input
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
The 70-or-so women and girls gathered in the Blue
Mountain Community College lecture room Wednesday
evening had their cellphones at the ready. They studied
Emily Evans, who stood at the front of the room near a
projection screen.
Evans, the executive director of the Women’s Founda-
tion of Oregon, asked her next question.
“Has fi nding affordable, high-quality child care ever
been a barrier to participation in the workforce?” she asked.
“Text your answer.”
The bar graph on the screen exploded to life as the answers
dumped into the database. The bars shrank or lengthened
depending on the most recent answer. When they settled,
the graph showed 36 percent said yes, 14 percent said no,
See WOMEN/10A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Emily Evans, executive director of the Women’s Foundation of Oregon, watches a
word cloud developing on the screen as audience members at the Listen to Her
town hall texted words describing the most important contributions women and
girls make in the community. The event took place Wednesday evening at Blue
Mountain Community College, Pendleton.