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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2019)
A7 THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2019 Delivery robots cleared to drive on Washington sidewalks By TOM BANSE Northwest News Network OLYMPIA, Wash. — Wheeled autonomous robots to bring online orders to your door have the green light to enter commercial service in Washington state. Gov. Jay Inslee signed rules of the road into law Tuesday after a robotic delivery vehicle rolled into his offi ce to deliver the bill. The new rules limit the small, bat- tery-powered robots to operating on sidewalks and crosswalks — unless there are no sidewalks. The machines have to yield the right of way to pedestrians and bicycles. Maximum speed cannot exceed 6 mph and a human remote operator must always be available to monitor the robot and take con- trol if necessary. “Hello, I’m a Starship delivery robot,” chirped the six-wheeled machine about the size of a picnic cooler during a demonstration at the foot of the state C apitol steps in Olympia. The sensor-packed vehi- cle slowed to a stop when people got very close. “Thank you, have a nice day,” it blurted from a hidden loudspeaker. Ryan Tuohy, the Starship Tech- nologies senior vice president for business development, said food delivery to college students could be a good selling point in the Pacifi c Northwest. “University campuses are a place where our technology is being accepted and adopted with enthusiasm that has exceeded our expectations,” Tuohy said . “We certainly hope to engage with uni- versities here in Washington state.” No one testifi ed against autho- rizing autonomous delivery robots when the bill wended its way through the Washington Legisla- ture. The vote count on fi nal pas- sage in the state House was 92-2. The bill passed the state Senate unanimously, 46-0. The new rules for sidewalk delivery robots take effect in July . Myers: ‘It was one of those opportunities you just have to take’ Continued from Page A1 “It’s just one of those rare things I wasn’t expecting,” he said. “It was one of those opportunities you just have to take.” In January, Myers resigned as the Portland Fire Chief to become Cannon Beach’s fi rst emergency manager. The decision raised some eyebrows in Portland due to the fact he announced his resignation the day after Hardesty was sworn into offi ce and took oversight responsi- bility of the fi re department. At the time, Myers cited his passion for the subject and a desire to be closer to his wife, who had moved Gearhart, as reasons for his departure . Both will be moving back to Portland full time. W hile his tenure was short, Myers said he was grateful for the experience. “I learned more than I ever thought I ever would about the Cascadia Subduction Zone earth- quake,” he said. “There are people in Cannon Beach that have done a tremendous amount of work ... I’m super impressed with all actions that have been taken already. There’s still a lot to be done ... but it’s been a fantastic opportunity to learn.” City Manager Bruce St. Denis said the plan is to fi gure out how to keep as many of the initiatives Myers began in motion until the city can hire a replacement. In the p ast few months, Myers has focused on increasing member- ship in the Community Emergency Response Team and developing a neighborhood response program. “We got a lot of momentum when Mike came on and we don’t want to drop anything,” St. Denis said. “But it’s not possible to keep the same pace without a full-time person.” Mike Myers with Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in January. Clinic: County is among top four most heavily impacted by opioid misuse Continued from Page A1 “There’s a lot of people spend- ing a lot of money to go to Port- land for something they should be getting here,” said Leslie Ford, the director of clinical innovation at Greater Oregon Behavioral Health Inc. But some on the North Coast have raised concerns over whether the methadone clinic would increase the call load for med- ics and other emergency respond- ers who are already responding to a higher-than-average number of overdose calls. There are several factors that contribute to a high rate of nalox- one use by emergency respond- ers. Part of the reason is Clatsop County is among the top four most heavily impacted by opioid misuse and overdose deaths in the state, Ford said. Oregon Health Author- ity data shows the county as one of the highest in the state for hos- pitalizations for opioid overdoses in 2017. Clatsop County has also been among the worst in the state for prescribing a large number of opi- oids. In 2015, more than 27 per- cent of c ounty residents were pre- scribed opioids, according to the Oregon Health Authority, though that number has steadily decreased over the years. “I think the rate of addiction in general is higher here,” Ford said. Higher abuse rates could also be related to the labor-intensive jobs in the timber and fi shing industries that can lead to injuries or chronic pain , said Mimi Haley, the CEO of the coordinated care organization. Data can also be skewed because it relies on self-reporting by emergency responders, mean- ing a county that consistently reports naloxone use is likely going to be higher than counties that do not . But the high rate also suggests a need for more resources before addictions turn into overdoses, Haley said, a problem refl ected in many rural Oregon counties. One of the misconceptions that surround methadone clinics is the fear that more people with addictions will be attracted to the region , and therefore increase the burden of medics and fi refi ght- ers to respond to more overdoses, Ha ley said. “The idea is people are so much less likely to overdose because they are in treatment ... because they are using this medicine,” Haley said. “We don’t represent EL an increase in probability. We rep- resent a decrease.” “It’s not like we’re bring- ing in new people,” Ford added. “They’re here.” Duane Mullins, the general manager of Medix, said it’s no surprise to hear the rate of nal- oxone being dispensed by emer- gency responders is high in Clat- sop County, though he attributes some of the trend to the fact that more agencies are carrying it than before. Mullins also doesn’t anticipate the methadone clinic will bring any more calls than the ambulance service would already be handling. But he hopes the clinic will help make it so fewer people will need his service down the road. “The value (of the clinic) is going to be after I’m done with them,” he said. Travers: First recipient of the scholarship from Astoria Continued from Page A1 Long an aspiring marine biologist, Travers traveled with a high school contingent on an expedition to Fiji to work with Operation Wallacea, a global conservation research organi- zation, surveying wildlife and studying coral reefs. It was during that trip Tra- vers said she realized she’d like to go into the policy side to marry her love of science with the infl uence of politics. “There’s only so much sci- entists can do without the gov- ernment also establishing those laws,” she said. Travers is the daughter of Dan Travers, a former com- mander of Coast Guard Sec- tor Columbia River and a base manager with Life Flight Net- work, and C.C. Travers, a math teacher at Warrenton Grade School. She pointed to her belief in leadership, and the importance of training a new generation of leaders, as why her application stood out . At Astoria, she is co-pres- ident of the National Honor Society and math club Mu Alpha Theta, president of the school’s Spanish Club and cap- tain of the school’s team for the National Ocean Sciences Bowl. She has competed in swim- ming, cross-country and golf. The University of Oregon is one of 40 schools nationally that take part in the Stamps schol- arship program. Travers is the fi rst recipient of the scholarship from Astoria. In addition to her tuition, fees, room and board for four years, she will receive up to $12,000 for enrichment activities such as internships . The total value of the schol- arship is estimated at $125,000, said Roger Thompson, the vice president for student services and enrollment management at the University of Oregon. The cost is shared between the uni- versity and the foundation. 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