(Des Moines, IA) – The five state-operated Test Iowa drive-thru sites and the State Hygienic Lab will be closed on Monday, May 31, for the Memorial Day holiday. The sites include:

• Black Hawk County — 4121 Alexandra Drive, Waterloo
• Linn County — Windstar Lines, 5755 Willow Creek Drive SW, Cedar Rapids
• Polk County — 4475 NE 3rd Street, Des Moines
• Pottawattamie County — 3236 Nebraska Ave., Council Bluffs  
• Scott County — North Park Mall, 320 W. Kimberly Road, Davenport

All sites will reopen for testing as usual on Tuesday, June 1, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Individuals who wish to be tested at any site must first complete an online assessment at testiowa.com, and schedule an appointment. Locations and hours of operation for all test sites can be found at testiowa.com or coronavirus.iowa.gov.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa is joining a growing number of states making it legal to use robots for deliveries in areas where foot traffic is allowed, like sidewalks and crosswalks. They’re called P-D-Ds — personal delivery devices. Representative Rob Bacon of Slater says under the new law, the maximum speed for a delivery robot is no more than six miles an hour on a sidewalk or pedestrian area. “If there are no sidewalks, the little PDD can operate on the left side of the road,” Bacon says.

A type of PDD robot

A delivery robot will be allowed travel 20 miles an hour on a street — but may only operate on street with posted speed limits of 40 miles an hour or less. The delivery robots can be no more than 500 pounds — before any cargo is added — and the robots must be operated or supervised remotely by a live person. Representative Dave Williams of Waterloo says P-D-Ds are being tested in a handful of U.S. cities before delivery robots would see wider use. “I expect we’ll be back here perfecting this before that happens,” Williams says, “and I hope it happens in Bondurant before anywhere else.”

An Amazon fulfillment center opened in the Des Moines suburb late last year. Amazon’s six-wheeled robot is called Scout. The FedEx delivery robot is called Roxo (ROCKS-oh). The companies envision driving a truck load of personal delivery devices to an area and releasing the robots to travel the final segment of the delivery route. Iowa cities and counties will not be allowed to impose regulations on delivery robots that are stricter than the new state regulations. Governor Reynolds signed the bill this month and the law goes into effect July 1st.

The Creston Police Department reports two arrests and an incident of vandalism. Authorities say Thursday afternoon, 27-year-old Zakary Arthur Titus, of Creston, was arrested on a warrant for Violation of Probation. He was being held in the Union County Jail on a $1,000 cash-only bond. And, 43-year-old David Carlson Wallander, of Thayer, was arrested Thursday afternoon in Creston, for Driving While Suspended. He was taken to the Union County Jail and later posted a $300 bond.

Creston Police said also, a man residing in the 400 block of Livingston Avenue reported on May 21st, that multiple vehicles he owns, were vandalized. The front driver’s side window of a 2019 Mitsubishi Outlander was broken out, and scratches were made on the rear driver’s side quarter panel of a 2013 Nissan Titan. The total amount of damage was estimated at $1,000.