Spring
SPRING
SPORTS
GUIDE
Sports 2
018
NATIONAL
AG WEEK
PAGES 3A, 4A, 8A
INSIDE/1C
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2018
142nd Year, No. 110
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
One dollar
SADDLED WITH DEBT
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Dr. Joel Rice speaks about opioid
addiction Tuesday at the Eastern Or-
egon Forum at Blue Mountain Com-
munity College.
Subduing
the opioid
monster
Tide starting to turn in
Oregon, experts say
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Staff photos by E.J. Harris
A pedestrian walks past the Hamley’s store on Court Avenue on Tuesday in Pendleton.
Co-owners of Western shop
and restaurant still at odds
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
H
amley’s businesses in downtown Pendleton are
more than $1.1 million in debt and faced foreclosure
March 1, until co-owner Parley Pearce struck a
last-minute deal with a new lender.
Blair Woodfield, the other owner of the historic saddle
shop and adjoining restaurant, is suing to oust Pearce from
the Hamley companies. Woodfield also wants to sell the
operations to the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation for more than $3.1 million, according to docu-
ments he filed Friday with Umatilla County Circuit Court.
The documents included an email Gary George, CEO of
the tribes’ Wildhorse Resort and Casino, sent Nov. 10. 2016,
referring to a letter of intent between CTUIR and Hamley’s.
“As we have previously expressed, the CTUIR/WRC
will maintain Hamley’s brand and tradition that the current
owners (and past owners) have carried forward over the last
110 years!” wrote George.
Pearce, however, said he wants to keep Hamley’s, and
court documents show he has offered to buy out Woodfield’s
interest in the businesses for $950,000. Woodfield’s attorney,
Steven Joseph of La Grande, in court filings described the
offer as “low ball.”
Woodfield’s latest legal maneuver in the case came a
month ago when Joseph filed a motion asking the court to
appoint a receiver to take control of the iconic Western store
and steakhouse. According to request, that third party would
have the power to sell Hamley’s.
See HAMLEY’S/10A
The Hamley’s brand is stamped into the concrete side-
walk in front of the store in downtown Pendleton.
Hamley’s by the numbers
The numbers are disheartening.
Someone dies from prescription
opioids every 20 minutes in this country.
The Oregon Health Authority reports that
more Oregonians die from prescription
opioids than any other drug — including
alcohol, methamphetamines, heroin and
cocaine.
According to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, more than 42,000
Americans died in opioid-related deaths
in 2016. Oregon ranks sixth nationally
for non-medical use of prescription pain
relievers like Percocet and OxyContin,
In short, many of our fellow Americans
are addicted to prescription painkillers.
A slate of experts discussed the
epidemic of pill popping at Tuesday
night’s Eastern Oregon Forum — “This is
Our Opioid Crisis” — at Blue Mountain
Community College. Each one deals with
prescription painkillers in one way or
another. The panel included Dr. Joel Rice,
pharmacist and pain management expert
Eric Holeman, Dr. Chuck Hoffman, nurse
See OPIOIDS/10A
$1.1M — $1.3M in debt
And Hamley’s made just $5,000 last year, according to
attorney Steven Joseph.
$140K profit
For the steakhouse in 2017, according to Blair Woodfield
in court filings, but the Western store lost $135,000.
$800K gross revenues
Increase since 2010, Woodfield stated, while the store’s
gross sales declined $678,336, its inventory dropped by
more than $300,000 and it has debt exceeding $100,000.
RHYTHMIC MODE: CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION
Photo courtesy Debbi Green
Pendleton’s Rhythmic Mode dance team won the school’s eighth state championship last weekend.
From left: Kacey Robbins (in blue), Emily Gilsdorf (in blue), Hannah Rasmussen, Paige Skinner (in blue),
Giliana Adams and Terika Christensen perform in their winning routine in the OSAA’s 5A division.
‘Make Oregon
Great Again’
GOP candidate
faces skepticism
Carpenter gets pushback from
Hispanic Advisory Committee
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Gubernatorial candidate Sam Carpenter
ran into some stiff criticism for his views
on public employee unions, immigration
and President Donald Trump when he
visited Hermiston’s Hispanic Advisory
Committee on Monday.
Carpenter, a Bend-area Republican
who owns a telephone answering service
called Centratel, is one of 17 people
running for Oregon governor. On Monday
he touted his business capabilities, prom-
ised to get Oregon’s economy growing at
a faster pace and criticized Oregon’s “out
of control” bureaucracy and government
spending.
The group at Hermiston City Hall was
more interested in talking about his views
on immigration, particularly a line in the
brochure he handed out promising to end
Oregon’s sanctuary status for “illegal
aliens.”
Carpenter stated that he was only
talking about removing people who had
committed other crimes besides immigra-
tion-related ones.
“I’m sorry, they need to go away. Those
folks are giving the Hispanic community
a horrible reputation,” he said, adding that
they were “probably more of a danger to
you than to the native Americans here.”
See CARPENTER/10A