Page 10A
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East Oregonian
Friday, April 29, 2016
BOOKS: Thankful for all her loyal customers
Continued from 1A
watched her pennies closely.
“I never even printed business cards,”
she said. “That’s how I stayed in business
so long — I never spent any more money
than I had to.”
Dallas talks matter-of-factly of this
heartbreaking inal chapter of Armchair’s
34-year run. She stresses her immense
gratitude to faithful patrons.
“We have a lot of loyal customers
that supported us over the years and I
am thankful,” she said. “There just aren’t
enough of them.”
She broke away to wait on one of
these customers, a woman holding two
books she had found on the mostly bare
shelves. On the wall near the woman’s
right shoulder was a postcard with the
likeness of octogenarian author Clyde
Rice in a Scrooge-esque night shirt.
“Take an author to bed,” the card
reads.
Dallas punched in the prices of the
two book into the cash register, then
calculated the 30 percent discount.
“That’s $38.25,” Dallas told her.
“I’m really going to miss your store,”
the woman said.
It’s a common lament.
“I’m so sad about her leaving,” said
customer Ron Port, inclining his head
at Dallas. “I like walking around in the
local bookstore where you can pick up
the books and look at them. You can’t
walk around the computer and pick up
books. At Amazon, you are at the mercy
of the reviewers.”
Former Armchair owner Darcy
Dauble is sorry the store is closing, too,
but understands.
“You don’t have the volume to get
discounts or make any sort of proit —
it’s hard,” Dauble said. “People appre-
ciate bookstores, I think, but books are
expensive. It’s hard to buy local just to
support your little bookstore.”
Despite the closure of her business,
Dallas won’t concede that small, inde-
pendent book sellers are going the way
of the blacksmith. She said some readers
who switched to Kindles or Nooks are
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The long-time Pendleton bookstore Armchair Books is shuttering its doors.
now coming back because they missed
the feel of physical books.
Indeed, the decline of brick-and-
mortar bookstores seems to be easing
off. Publishing consultant Mike
Shatzkin told USA Today in 2011 that
shelf space devoted to print books in
physical stores would shrink 50 percent
in ive years. This week, in an email to
the East Oregonian, he admitted he had
miscalculated and it is more like a 35
percent drop.
“There does seem to be more
persistence to print than I had thought
there would be,” he said. “That reduces
the decline path for stores. But the trends
that drive people to online retail have not
completely abated.”
Albert Greco, a Fordham University
marketing professor who was quoted in
that same USA Today story, said more
independent bookstores started up than
went out of business last year. In 2007,
he said, bookstores had sales of about
$17.1 billion, which fell to about $10.8
billion in 2014. In 2015, however, sales
took a U-turn to $11.1 billion.
“They have bounced back,” Greco
said. “We saw gigantic interest in
e-books ... people said e-books would
own half the market by 2015. That’s not
the case at all.”
He shared recently released Associ-
ation of American Publisher numbers
that suggest e-book sales declined 9.5
percent from 2014 to 2015.
When asked if she’d ever get an
e-book, Dallas shook her head, but
allowed an escape clause.
“Maybe when my eyesight gets bad
so I can enlarge the print,” she said.
On Saturday, the soon-to-be former
bookstore owner will go out with a cele-
bration. She invites former customers to
drop in to the store from 2-4 p.m. to have
cake and champagne, reminisce and say
good-bye.
Now that she isn’t running a business,
she will attend to her garden and go out
into nature in search of wildlowers and
mushrooms. She’ll tackle the boxes of
books at her home. Her taste runs wide
from Willa Cather and Ivan Doig to
Harry Potter’s J.K. Rowling.
Dallas smiled at the silver lining of
Armchair’s closing.
“I’ll have time to read,” she said.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at kaney@
eastoregonian.com or call 541-966-0810.
WOMEN: Pendleton was one of 12 tour stops
Continued from 1A
and 18 percent had answered,
“Somewhat.” The rest hadn’t
needed child care.
Other real-time polling
revealed 92 percent experi-
enced discrimination based
on gender and 66 percent
faced mental health issues
that adversely affected work,
family, physical health or
relationships. More than 70
percent revealed they feel
stress every day because there
isn’t enough time to get things
done. Seventy-four percent of
the group, or women close to
them, had experienced sexual
or domestic violence.
They texted their ages,
race and county of residence.
No need to share their sex
— there was only one man
in the room and he was there
in case someone needed an
interpreter.
The texting poll was part
of the foundation’s state-
wide “Listen to Her” tour.
Evans also asked the group
members to place dots on a
large piece of butcher paper
where someone had written
10 issues that affect women.
Participants placed dots
on the ones that challenge
them personally. The topics
included poverty and basic
TAXI: City hasn’t heard of
any Uber drivers in Hermiston
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Participants at the “Listen to Her” town hall Wednes-
day evening at Blue Mountain Community College,
Pendleton, discuss root causes and solutions to issues
that affect women and girls.
needs, education, reproduc-
tive health and time pressure.
Participants divided up
into smaller groups and
discussed root causes and
solutions to issues they were
most passionate about.
Some women ventured
out to the 1985 motor home
Evans and her team uses for
traveling and told stories on
camera.
Before the hour-and-
a-half session got rolling,
Evans got the group dancing
and laughing to a Michael
Jackson tune. Then she got
serious.
Data and stories gathered
from around the state will
inform a comprehensive study
on women and girls. During
the past seven months, Evans
said, the foundation collected
and compiled “mountains of
data.” The last such study was
in 1998 using 1990 census
numbers, she said.
“The decision makers in
the state have been operating
in an information blind for
over 20 years,” Evans said.
“That’s unacceptable for the
2.1 million women and girls
of Oregon who contribute an
extraordinary amount to our
state. In return, they are expe-
riencing some of the greatest
inequities in the country.”
She’s referring to things
like wage inequity, sexual
assault and educational attain-
ment. During the statewide
tour, Evans and her team also
will gather personal stories.
“The stories matter, too,”
Evans said. “We have heard
from over 800 women so far.”
Pendleton was one of
12 stops on the tour, which
inishes in Burns on May 2.
The statewide report will be
released in September.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
sit’s contract for the senior
and disabled ride program.
The program allows senior
and disabled residents to
purchase one-way ride
tickets for $2 apiece, which
cab companies can redeem
at city hall for $6.15.
City staff at the time said
Hermiston Transit broke
the contract by giving a
client a ride in a vehicle
without proper insurance,
while the cab company’s
staff contended the ride
was a personal favor and no
ticket changed hands.
Morgan said after that
incident, Hermiston Transit
continued to offer long-
time senior and disabled
clients a $2 ride on its
own dime, which caused
a “signiicant” drop in the
amount of money the city
was spending to subsidize
the senior and disabled
ride program, still running
through Umatilla Cab
Company.
Taxi companies in larger
cities are increasingly
seeing competition from
ride-sharing
companies
such as Uber, which uses
an app to connect people
needing rides with nearby
drivers willing to use their
own car to pick someone up
in exchange for payment.
Morgan said the city
hasn’t heard of anyone
acting as an Uber driver in
the city, but if they did they
would either need to get
a license from the city as
their own cab company or
Uber would need to obtain
a license with the city.
Either way, qualifying for
a city taxi license requires
a guarantee of being avail-
able to give rides at least 18
hours each day.
“I don’t think (the
licensing rules) would
preclude
them
from
driving,” he said, “but I
think in practice it wouldn’t
work out.”
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Racist statements lead lawmakers
to reject proposed John Wayne Day
SACRAMENTO,
Calif. (AP) — California
lawmakers have defeated
a resolution intended to
honor John Wayne after
opponents
challenged
what they say are racist
statements by the late
actor.
Republican
State
Assemblyman Matthew
Harper of Huntington
Beach sought to declare
May 26, 2016, as John
Wayne Day to mark the
day the actor was born.
An Orange County
airport is already named
after him. The bill,
ACR137, is the sort of
resolution that lawmakers
frequently pass.
But this one triggered
a
20-minute
debate
Thursday before failing,
35-20, to what Harper
called “the orthodoxy of
political correctness.”
Others lined up to
denounce what Demo-
cratic Assemblyman Luis
Alejo of Watsonville
called Wayne’s disturbing
views on race.
In a 1971 interview
with Playboy, Wayne
talked about his qualms
over the idea of ending
white supremacy.
“We can’t all of a
sudden get down on our
knees and turn everything
over to the leadership of
the blacks. I believe in
white supremacy until the
blacks are educated to a
point of responsibility. I
don’t believe in giving
authority and positions of
leadership and judgment to
irresponsible people,” he
told the magazine.
Several
Republicans
say Wayne is remembered
worldwide as an American
hero. They argued that
lawmakers have honored
others despite contro-
versies that eventually
clouded their legacies.
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AGRICULTURE: HAREC is already
home to 15 center-pivot watering systems
Continued from 1A
Center, which broke ground
Thursday.
The project is just one
part of a $23 million bond
that voters passed last year.
BMCC also plans to start
building a new Workforce
Training Center in Boardman
next month, and renovate
its Facility for Agricultural
Resource Management, or
FARM, in Pendleton.
BMCC has partnered with
Oregon State University on
the Precision Irrigated Agri-
culture Center, which will
be located on the campus of
OSU’s Hermiston Agricul-
tural Research and Exten-
sion Center. Staff scientists
at HAREC already work
extensively on precision
irrigation, helping farmers
conserve water and fertilizer
while maximizing yield.
BMCC President Cam
Preus said it makes sense to
have students learn precision
irrigation at a facility where
they have easy access to
hands-on training. HAREC
is already home to 15 center-
pivot watering systems, most
of which were donated by
local farmers who directly
beneit from the station’s
research.
Preus said the agriculture
industry is looking for
employees with high-tech
savvy, who understand the
tools of the trade. BMCC
graduates will be ready to ill
that demand.
“There isn’t another
facility like this,” Preus said.
“We have demand from the
farms, and we also have a
lot of international interest in
this program.”
Fred Ziari, president and
CEO of IRZ Consulting
in Hermiston, attended
Thursday’s groundbreaking
and said he is excited to
see the center taking shape.
Ziari’s company pioneers
state-of-the-art technology
for making irrigation more
eficient, which has helped
conserve an estimated 10
billion gallons of water per
year, and 35 million kilo-
watt-hours of electricity.
In the past six months
alone, Ziari said he’s hired
10 new irrigation engineers
and technicians. Those local
jobs could be illed by a new
wave of local candidates.
“The demand is there. We
look forward to hiring them
and contributing to their
success,” Ziari said.
Phil Hamm, HAREC
station director, said the
partnership with BMCC
will also provide them with
more students and interest in
conducting research experi-
ments.
“Everyone knows agri-
culture is the ruler of our
economy,” Hamm said.
“We’re looking forward to
building this cooperation and
collaboration into the future.
Construction on the
Precision Irrigated Agri-
culture Center should wrap
up by early 2017. Ziari,
who described Hermiston
as “the center of precision
agriculture locally,” said he
expects the facility will put
both BMCC and OSU on the
map.
“Every year, we have
people
from
Brazil,
Australia, Russia, the Middle
East ... they all come here,”
Ziari said. “Having a center
that focuses on precision irri-
gation is unique in a global
sense, and a national sense.”
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
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