BUSINESS
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
HeRMIsTOnHeRaLd.COM • A7
Hermiston City Council OKs restaurant assistance program
Program will distribute
$10 gift cards to city
residents to use at local
restaurants
By ANTONIO SIERRA
sTaFF WRITeR
A customer’s next lunch
tab could be paid for, cour-
tesy of the city of Hermiston.
At a Monday, May 10,
meeting, the Hermiston City
Council voted unanimously
to direct city staff to work
with the Greater Hermiston
Chamber of Commerce on
developing the Restaurant
Assistance Pilot Program.
Inspired by a similar ini-
tiative the city had with
Hermiston Cinema and
the Desert Lanes bowling
alley during the summer of
2020, the program would
use $50,000 from the lat-
est COVID-19 federal relief
package to create gift certifi-
cates redeemable at Hermis-
ton restaurants.
Assistant City Manager
Mark Morgan said the city
still needed to finalize the
details with the chamber,
but staff wanted to get the
program funded before the
end of the fiscal year June
30.
According to a draft out-
line of the plan, Herm-
iston
would
distribute
$10 gift cards to city res-
idents through their util-
ity accounts, the chamber,
Hermiston Parks and Rec-
reation and the Hermiston
Public Library. Participating
restaurants would accept the
Workforce Taxi Program
sees growth in 2021
HeRMIsTOn HeRaLd
Ridership in the Work-
force On-demand Ride
Cooperative
(WORC)
rebounded in the first
quarter of 2021 as more
residents used the ser-
vice to access jobs at gro-
cery, retail, and fast food
establishments in Herm-
iston and the surrounding
communities.
The WORC taxi pro-
gram was started in Octo-
ber 2019 and is subsidized
by state transportation
funding. Employees and
employers can purchase
ticket packets at reduced
rates for scheduled trans-
portation provided by
Hermiston Taxi to and
from their workplace.
After a decline in
demand for the program
in the second quarter of
2020 during the early
months of the COVID-
19 pandemic, the city
began offering free ticket
packets in August to
help people access their
workplace.
Workers
continued
to purchase new tick-
ets after the free program
expired in January, with
an average of 598.5 tick-
ets purchased each month
between January and
April 2021.
“The goal of this pro-
gram from the begin-
ning has been to make
sure lack of transporta-
tion isn’t an obstacle for
people to get to their jobs,
and we’re really pleased
that WORC is provid-
ing another option for
people,” said Mark Mor-
gan, assistant city man-
ager. “The program is
averaging about 20 rid-
ers per day to all kinds of
workplaces.”
About 78% of April
ridership was to or from
grocery, retail or fast food
jobs, with about 7% to
industrial worksites. The
program is available to
employees and employers
in Hermiston, Umatilla
and Stanfield.
gift cards as payment and
then turn in the cards to the
chamber for reimbursement.
The program is expected to
run through the end of 2021.
Councilor Nancy Peter-
son asked if the city was
planning on tracking pur-
chases made by the gift
card to determine whether
the program was effective.
Mayor Dave Drotzmann
asked if recipients could
make some sort of cash
match before acquiring the
gift cards.
“They won’t just get a
free cheeseburger,” he said.
“They have a little skin in
the game.”
Chamber CEO Kristina
Olivas said the goal is to
keep the program as simple
as possible to ensure wide
participation from the city’s
restaurants, whether they are
chamber members or not.
Olivas said the effects of
the COVID-19 pandemic
on the local restaurant
industry have been uneven:
Many of Hermiston’s most
popular restaurants were
able to use increased rev-
enue from drive-thru and
delivery to make up for the
shutdown to indoor dining
while the smaller, “mom
and pop” restaurants were
trying to figure out how to
stay open.
Councilor Roy Barron
is concerned about equity,
saying that a number of
smaller restaurants, partic-
ularly Latino-owned restau-
rants, were neither mem-
bers of the chamber nor the
Hermiston Latino Business
Network, and struggled with
gaining access to assistance
programs.
Olivas said she was aware
of the issue and would work
toward marketing the pilot
program to the Latino busi-
ness community. But she
also added that the chamber
and city wouldn’t be able to
dictate at which participat-
ing restaurants consumers
spent their gift cards.
Morgan said govern-
ments sometimes suffered
from “paralysis by anal-
ysis,” and the city would
be able to use the response
from the pilot program to
inform how they approach
future assistance programs.
“We’ll learn a lot just by
rolling it out,” he said.
The
council
voted
6-0 to authorize the pro-
gram. Councilor Phillip
Spicerkuhn recused himself
from the vote because he’s
a member of the chamber
board, while Councilor Lori
Davis was absent.
Earlier in the meeting,
the council unanimously
voted to enter into an inter-
governmental agreement
with Umatilla, Stanfield,
Echo and Umatilla County
to contract with Pac/West
Communications to pro-
vide government affairs
services.
Hermiston already con-
tracts with Pac/West to rep-
resent their interests in
Salem, but the new agree-
ment would involve all
the entities using Pac/West
to “closely work together
in seeking projects that
strengthen the West County
area.”
The Next Chapter opens new horizons
By JADE MCDOWELL
neWs edITOR
Book lovers have a new local option
to get their reading fix with the open-
ing of The Next Chapter Bookstore.
The store, which opened April 30,
is owned by mother-daughter team
Angela Pursel and Alexis McCarthy.
McCarthy said she and her mother
own the dance studio next door, and
had some extra space in the building,
and so decided to use it to pursue a
project they’ve always dreamed about.
“Both of us have always wanted to
run a bookstore. Always, always,” she
said.
McCarthy described the book-
store’s selection as “robust.” It
includes fiction and nonfiction across
genres, for adults, young adults, teens
and children of all ages. She said they
are happy to order a specific book if
someone wants it, and they are also
hoping people will give them feed-
back about what kind of books they
would like to see in the future.
“One of our biggest things right
now is to find out what people in the
community are reading and stock up
accordingly,” she said.
In addition to books, the store also
offers reading glasses and “bookish”
gifts. They also have a selection of
puzzles and toys, and what McCar-
Jade McDowell/Hermiston Herald
A selection of books fills the shelves at The Next Chapter Bookstore, which opened
in Hermiston on April 30, 2021.
thy refers to as “nerd games,” such as
Splendor and Settlers of Catan.
“They’re more specialty games
you wouldn’t necessarily find next to
Monopoly,” she said, hastening to add
that she does really enjoy Monopoly
too.
The store is open Fridays, Satur-
days and Mondays, although McCa-
rthy said if people email in book
requests they can still take orders on
other days.
She said she and Pursel were over-
whelmed and grateful for the support
they received their first weekend open,
and look forward to helping people
discover their new favorite books.
The Next Chapter Bookstore is at
1000 South Highway 395, Suite C in
Hermiston, next to Dance Unlimited.
For more information visit thenex-
tchapterhermiston.com.
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