BEND, Ore. (AP) — Monthly during the summer, people floating down the Deschutes River either ignore the warning signs or don’t get out of the river fast enough, so they get a bumpy ride through a spillway at an old timber industry dam in Bend.
The Bulletin of Bend reports (http://bit.ly/ohnuF0 ) that a woman drowned there in 2006, and Bend fire officials say they get regular rescue calls.
Now, local officials are trying to see whether they can raise about $1.7 million to make a safe passage called a slipway for river recreationists.
But officials say that even if there’s a gentle pathway is constructed to get over the dam to the lower part of the river, there’s still going to be inherent risk in using float devices on the river.
