Hand-washing station inventor runs into trouble
In mid-March the Gazette-Times published a story on local gadget guru Niels Nielsen and a do-it-yourself hand-washing machine he was developing in an effort to keep homeless people safe amid the coronavirus.
At that point he only had two prototypes in the field, one in Pioneer Park and the other across the Willamette River in the Orleans Natural Area — both prime camping spots for the homeless.
Nielsen, a retired HP Inc. engineer, kept building and expanding his reach, morphing into the Johnny Appleseed of hand-washing stations. At his peak he had 13 stations sprinkled around Corvallis, on a mixture of public and private property.
But it was the ones on public right-of-way that put Nielsen in the crosshairs of City Hall because his units were discharging gray water into storm drains.
Read more: https://democratherald.com/news/local/hand-washing-station-inventor-runs-into-trouble/article_29236158-707d-5489-bb52-4206b602a6df.html
(Albany Democrat Herald)