Colorado Dam spillway plans move forward

Last November, voters in Bend passed a $29 million bond measure for the Bend Park and Recreation District. The proposed projects are starting to take shape. One of them is fixing the dangerous Colorado Dam spillway near the Old Mill District.

“It’s a very dynamic project,” Project Manager Chelsea Schneider said Thursday. “Very interesting, lots of elements are feeding into it.”

She says one of those elements is making the river safer for those who use it.

“One of the interesting things we’ve been working through is working with the fire department on how to develop rescue systems,” Schneider said.

The project will add safe passage, restore the banks of the river and create a whitewater park.

Justin Rae, a board member with the Bend Paddle Trial Alliance,says the group has raised about $450,000 for the whitewater park and is confident they’ll reach their goal of about twice that amount.

“We’ve only been actively fund-raising for a period of five months or so,” Rae said. “There has been a lot of great feedback from the community.”

The final plans for exactly what is going to happen on the waterway have not yet been released. An open house has set for September 18th.

For more details, visit http://www.bendparksandrec.org/info/About_Us/Potential-Bond-Measure/Colorado-Dam/ and http://www.bendpaddletrailalliance.org/content1.asp?cat=4&id=21