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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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