Wake up seven days a week with the Cascades Reader. Get local news, event information, podcasts, discounts and more. Sign up now!
At last Wednesday’s city council meeting, Mayor Jim Clinton held up a colorful painting of what could be. The rendering (pictured above) showed both a river and a pond—but no Newport Avenue dam, the 103-year-old, leaking structure that creates Mirror Pond. Presented to murmuring approvals and head nods at the city council meeting, this new […]
After dancing around the issue for nearly two hours—and for years before Monday evening’s meeting inside the Bend Park & Recreation District office building—the Mirror Pond ad hoc committee casually called a vote: Should we keep Mirror Pond or not? Suddenly, at least a few of the roughly 50 community members in attendance sat up […]
For the past several years, public debate has seesawed between keeping the Newport Avenue Dam and, with it, Bend's iconic Mirror Pond, or removing the structure and letting the Deschutes River run free. The city and park district have formed committees, conducted surveys, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars as well as countless hours […]
Huge news: Pacific Power, the utility company that owns the dam which creates Mirror Pond, is calling it quits on the leaky, 103-year-old dam. Here is an excerpt form PacifiCorp’s press release: PacifiCorp has determined that it would not be cost-effective for its customers to make the investments needed to continue long-term operations at the […]
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 […]
Get the best of The Source - Bend, Oregon directly in your email inbox.
Sending to:
