Authors, businesses, customers come together to save bookstore

On March 18, Bad Rock Books owner Cindy Ritter heard an odd sound in the front corner of her store.

It was a water leak. A bad one. The city of Columbia Falls water crews came out and confirmed it and to stop the leak, they shut off the water to her store.

It would be up to her to get it fixed.

The water line runs from the store to the main under Nucleus Avenue.

The estimated cost? $14,000.

On top of that, the coronavirus crisis was just ramping up.

The future of the bookstore was in doubt. Even a bookstore needs water for the bathroom and that sort of outlay for a business that already runs on thin margins would be difficult, especially in a pandemic, Ritter noted.

But fortunately, Ritter isn’t the only one in the area who loves books, old ones, new ones and ones in between.

Her store is piled high with books and she has made it a point to support local authors over the years.

The Montana Women Writers group heard about her plight as did Authors of the Flathead.

Local authors Janice McCaffrey and Debbie Burke went ahead and started a GoFundMe account to raise the money and then spread the word through social media and newspapers.

About a month later, the $14,000 was raised by more than 162 donors, including one $2,500 donation from an anonymous donor.

Soon, work will begin to fix the leak, done by Montana Trenchless.

“It’s a like getting a hug in a time when no one gets a hug,” a grateful Ritter said last week.

It was a pleasure to help, Burke said.

“She is so loved,” Burke said. “We had so many people throwing tentacles out in all directions (to raise funds). People were happy to get behind it.”

Burke said if the cost comes in over the estimate, they’ll go out and raise what’s needed.

“She has helped so many authors,” she said. “It’s just nice to have an independent bookstore.”

Ritter has long had a love for books. She wanted to be a librarian growing up. She inherited the store from founder Carol Rocks, a great friend and employer. The location has been a bookstore since 1997.

Today the store has more than 20,000 titles, and even more in the basement. She takes just about anything as long as it doesn’t smell or is moldy.

She urges folks not to throw books away.

“You can’t throw them away,” she said. “They’re like lost puppies.”