"The request for funding was about 7 percent of the dredging project cost and not 38 percent as claimed in the article," Horton told the Source. The Chamber's article inaccurately stated that the project was gathering "final funds," including "38 percent from BPRD and 15 percent from the City of Bend." Don Horton, executive director of Bend Park and Recreation District, says this is false. Councilors should pass the fee change or come up with some other way to save the pond.His week, the Bend Chamber of Commerce published an article in its "Bend Business Edition," stating permits and funding were in the "final stages" for the proposed $6.7 million dredging project at Mirror Pond-information the Chamber later discovered was erroneous. But it is a small amount for a community benefit. We don’t expect ratepayers to rejoice at paying $8 more a year. It might add about $8 a year to a household electric bill in Bend, according to one estimate. That fee would be passed on to Bend ratepayers. The best option we have heard would be a change in the city franchise fee on Pacific Power, which owns the dam and that creates the sediment backup. The better choice would be to come with up a funding mechanism to pay to dredge the pond. They could do it, though it would mean cutting money spent on other parks, roads or public safety. The park district and the city haven’t seemed all that interested in chipping in the estimated $6.4 million to dredge and maintain the pond. The city has long-term plans to spend more than $11 million to fix that.īut without dredging, the pond will gradually look more and more like a mudflat with a river channel in the middle. The pond shouldn’t be a city stormwater dump. City stormwater and sediment also pour directly into the pond through about a dozen city pipes. It is going to restore the riverbank and redo trails along Mirror Pond for $6.5 million.
The Bend Park & Recreation District is taking care of that.
The pond’s issues aren’t limited to dredging. They should find a way to pay for the dredging. And nobody seems all that eager to pay to dredge it before it becomes mostly mudflat.īend city councilors are scheduled to discuss the issue on Wednesday. But the pond that is so emblematic of Bend is in trouble. More than a century ago, Bend’s Mirror Pond was formed by a dam in the Deschutes River.
This article was published on: 09/17/18 12:00 AM