BEND, Ore. — The Bend City Council has voted to explore preserving a city landmark, the dammed-up part of the Deschutes River known as Mirror Pond.
The unanimous vote Wednesday, similar to one by the park board, means talks between city leaders and dam owner PacifiCorp are likely to intensify, and city officials will try to answer a knot of questions.
Among them is how the costs of repairing the dam and removing the silt behind it stack up against the costs of taking it down — and who will pay for whatever is done.
PacifiCorp has said it wants out of the dam, dating back a century, because power generation is no longer effective. That news came last month as the company inspected a leak that arose this fall.
Officials have been trying to figure out what to do in a city that informal surveys show is sharply divided.
Some say it would be better to take down the dam and allow the river to run free.
“Mirror Pond represents another era — I feel no obligation to carry it on,” Bend resident Ron Boozell told the council Wednesday. “It doesn’t make sense economically, financially, or environmentally. … The era of Mirror Pond is over. Welcome to Mirror River.”
Others say the pond is important historically and economically. An estimated 15,000 people use the river in the summer for kayaking, canoeing and floating on tubes.
“You have to embrace the past,” said council member Doug Knight. “This pond and what it represents is the single most important resource of our past in this community.”
