Local News

Safety is the Focus of the Mirror Pond Work

BEND, OR -- Bend Park and Recreation District is in design phase for its project to improve safety, accessibility, and riparian habitat preservation of Bend's Mirror Pond.
 
Park and Rec's Brian Hudspeth says the District has identified a number of issues associated with deteriorating sea walls and missing trail surfaces, and is focusing on repair, while maintaining aesthetics. "The Trail System that are along the banks of the river right now in Drake Park are failing, the sea wall is failing, it's collapsed and crumbled in a lot of spots, it has some potential safety hazards right along the edge of it from underwater piping that's causing loose soil and stuff underneath of it and it's causing some collapse behind the wall."
 
A public meeting about the project will be held on Thursday, August 31st, at 530 pm, at the District Office on Columbia, where there will be a presentation and Q&A to discuss the design and development of the project. Hudspeth says the Board has been working with Individuals and business owners who own land in the project area to make sure all concerns are met. "We're working with a public advisory committee made up of public members, local homeowners, and we have a business owners group, and Mirror Pond Solutions, they obviously own the land under the river. What we're trying to do is come up with a sustainable design that will enhance and repair the riparian habitat along the edge of the pond." 
 
This phase of the project is focusing on building new sections of the Deschutes river, and repairing failing trail surfaces, and Hudspeth says the area they're looking to repair covers quite a bit of real estate. "What we're trying to do is repair the failing trail sections and enforce areas where we want better access to the river, such as the beach area up by Galveston Bridge, possibly taking some of the land from Mirror Pond and adding trail, and then take the Deschutes River Trail from Riverside down back into Pacific Park."
 
The current design and development phase will result in detailed drawings and a cost estimate for the Board's consideration, and if funding is approved by the Board, work would commence in 2019.

 

On Air Now

George Noorey
George Noorey
12:00am - 2:00am
Coast to Coast

FlashAlert

KBND ON FACEBOOK

News Disclaimers