The call that came on July 6 to the police suspected that one of the little Dax delivery robots roaming around Philomath had been hit by a car on North 20th Place — that stretch of road that runs from the back of the Nova Dynamics shop location south to College Street.
“Actually, Dax wasn’t hit by the driver,” said Mason Reeves, robot operations manager for Daxbot Inc. “It seemed like the driver came onto 20th Street and then eventually stopped to see that Daxbot. The Daxbot and car never collided; instead, the driver didn’t seem to put her car in park and after a minute, her car rolled away and she ran after it.”
Philomath Police were dispatched to the incident at 3:34 p.m. on that Thursday afternoon. They arrested the 26-year-old Salem woman for driving under the influence of intoxicants — in this case, drugs.
Dax didn’t sustain any damage.
“The Daxbot was not doing a delivery,” Reeves said, adding that the interaction with the motorist was captured on the robot’s video system. “We actually test robots out on 20th Street and that bot specifically was doing just that after some maintenance.”
For those not familiar with Dax, these are the Nova Dynamics robots that are often seen around town delivering food and other items to residents.
A Dax robot was the victim of a hit-and-run incident in October 2021. In that incident, the robot had finished making a delivery at Beggs Tire and was headed east on a Main Street sidewalk. While attempting to cross 11th Street, the Dax was hit by a car and totally destroyed. A witness was able to describe the car that sped away and police later found and cited the 34-year-old driver.
The interesting part of that incident was that Dax’s camera got a good picture of the front of the vehicle right before getting hit — capturing all but the last digit of the license plate.
2. Beardsley: ‘In-state phenom’
Philomath High alum Cole Beardsley received glowing comments from his new head coach at Bushnell University in a post published online earlier this week.
Head coach Eddie Alexander, in his sixth year with the Eugene-based program, was quoted as saying, “Cole is another in-state phenom from the 4A level of Oregon from Philomath HS. We believe in Cole we have a diamond in the rough that will prove to be one of the top guards in the CCC within a few years.”
Bushnell competes at the NAIA level in the Cascade Collegiate Conference.
Beardsley helped Philomath to a fourth-place trophy in the 2022 state tournament at Coos Bay and state runner-up trophy in the 2023 state tournament at Forest Grove.
“His ability to create for his teammates and find guys open at the right time is a talent that is hard to find,” Alexander said. “He is a highly unselfish point guard, a tremendous defender and has the ability to score and fill a stat sheet when it is needed. Cole is a player we would consider very mentally tough and is someone with a tremendous work ethic in the weight room and on the court.”
Capsules on each of Bushnell’s basketball recruits appeared in a story by Victory Sports Network, which serves as a promotional outlet for NAIA athletics.
3. Everett White’s mullet
Everett White, a 9-year-old from Alsea, is getting attention for his hairstyle choice. Last week, The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Michael Alberty published a piece about White and a Gaston toddler named Austin Dougherty competing in the USA Mullet Championships.
“This mullet started almost three years ago as a faux hawk,” White says on his contestant page at MulletChamp.com. “My hair was growing so well that I decided to just let it keep growing. Now this is where we are!”
The second round of voting closed, so we’ll have to wait and see if White moves forward in the competition. He’s competing in the 9-12 age group.
By the way, the effort is serving as a fundraiser with proceeds going to the Wounded Warriors project.
According to the Oregonian piece, White named his mullet “Fredrick.” He’s the son of Chelsey and Roger White. The story mentions Windy’s Cutting Corner in Philomath, which is located on South Eighth Street and owned by Windy Gammon.
Very cool story and very cool thing that Everett is doing to raise money for a good cause.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).