Early last week, in order to get a good look at the leaking Newport Avenue Dam, Pacific Power, the utility company that owns the structure, drew down the already-low water levels of Mirror Pond (or, do we now call the water adjacent to Drake Park the Deschutes River?). The reason for lowering water levels even […]
Pacific Power engineers at work. So far, after one full day of inspections, Pacific Power engineers are reporting what we already knew about the leaking, 103-year-old Newport Avenue dam. “It’s inline with our expectations, which is, it’s old,” said Pacific Power spokesperson Bob Gravely while standing on the Newport Avenue Bridge overlooking the dam. Gravely, […]
Mirror Pond water levels are already quite low. Pacific Power spokesman Bob Gravely just told me that the utility company will begin drawing down water levels Monday morning at the “crack on dawn” so that company personnel can access and inspect the Newport Avenue Dam, which sprung a significant leak in early October. Permitting requirements […]
Aaaannnd, we’re back to a shallow pond. For now. This morning as I rolled across the walking bridge on my way to work I noted the wide, frozen, muddy shoals that framed the narrow, in-town stretch of the Deschutes River [area formerly known as Mirror Pond] as it flowed past Drake Park. (On Oct. 2 […]
Incredible. Just weeks after the newly formed Mirror Pond ad hoc committee was blasted for meeting in private, today’s meeting time was incorrectly posted on the Parks’ website! Unbelievable, right? The meeting time was listed as starting at 5pm. In fact, it started at 3pm. We all make mistakes. Heck, we here at the Source […]
River or pond? Dredge and walk away or remove the dam and add more public green space? The Mirror Pond Steering Committee has presented the community with four options (or seven, counting the no-dam alternatives associated with the first three options) for managing the silt clogging the pond feature on the Deschutes River near downtown […]
Yesterday’s MPMB powwow. During Wednesday’s Mirror Pond Management Board meeting Pacific Power rep. Angela Jacobson Price was asked “how important is the dam to your company?”“Not very,” she said. Price went on to call the Newport Avenue dam, the 100-year-old structure which impounds the Deschutes River at Drake Park, “a small asset” and said it […]
Late last week the Mirror Pond Steering Committee released the results from 18-question survey that was first issued in January.And yesterday, Don Horton, executive director of Bend Park & Recreation District summed up the results during a Mirror Pond Steering Committee meeting.Horton said it was “clear,” Bend residents care about water quality, river habitat and […]
Further proof that the tide may well be turning: mirrorpond.info That long, split-pea green bar on top represents the 62.26% of respondents who think “The dam should be removed and the river returned to its natural channel.” About 300 participated in the the unofficial survey, issued by the Old Bend Neighborhood Association via the website […]
Ryan Houston of Upper Deschutes Watershed Council explains what is and isn’t possible. Today’s City Club of Central Oregon forum was a who’s who of Bend’s movers and shakers. Not surprising given the topic: Mirror Pond. It was perhaps the first time in recent years where river experts, hydrologists and stakeholders, as well as notables […]
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