Posted on December 4, 2018
When Bend park board member Nathan Hovekamp declared that fish passage at Mirror Pond dam may be critical to support from the park district for dredging, he did not add, “I’ll make sure it is.” But he might as well have.
It’s another episode of foot-dragging in the epic foot-dragging to delay dredging the pond. The pond is well on its way to becoming a stinky pile of mud.
The discussions about the need to dredge have spanned a decade. The longer the debate over Mirror Pond drags on, the more incompetent the Bend City Council and the board of the Bend Parks & Recreation District look.
The foot-draggers are counting on something very peculiar. They are hoping that the good citizens of Bend may somehow, um, be untroubled by a pond in the center of town filling with silt. They are hoping that the good citizens of Bend will somehow, um, come to see a pond as an enemy of the river. They are hoping that the good citizens of Bend will somehow, um, buy that leadership means another thick dose of delay.
There does seem to be a virus attacking the minds of many public officials on the issue of Mirror Pond. During the most recent election for Bend Council, seemingly otherwise well-grounded candidates, such as Gena Goodman-Campbell, echoed a position detached from reality. They would proudly state that they favor the “hybrid solution” to Mirror Pond.
What the heck is that? Well, that’s where Pacific Power turns the dam into a more natural spillway, a close cousin to the park district’s project in the Old Mill District. It’s a beautiful vision — except it’s not going to happen. Pacific Power is committed to its dam for the foreseeable future.
We favor the “wand solution.” That’s where a magic wand floats down from the heavens, we wave it and the dredging is done. That’s just as likely to happen as the hybrid solution.
Rather than curating a mudflat in the middle of town, pay now to dredge the pond. Holding dredging hostage to the construction of a fish ladder is a mistake. If this is the sword the board of the park district is going to fall on, we need to start looking for new board members.
Source: The Bulletin
