If Mirror Pond is history and the Deschutes River is returned to its original wild state, property values will decline on all property that now borders Mirror Pond. These lost values and property taxes that they would have generated will then cause other properties’ taxes to rise to make up this loss.

Any property that has a good view of Mirror Pond, its value will also decline — similar to property bordering the ocean or having an ocean view. Mirror Pond is an attraction to visitors — a drawing and historical landmark for the city of Bend. Anyone familiar at all with Bend will automatically also think of Mirror Pond. Mirror Pond is the crown jewel of the city of Bend. Mirror Pond must be saved!

I believe downtown businesses will really suffer if Mirror Pond no longer exists. No more plastic duck races? No more beautiful swans, geese and ducks and their droppings? That last part would be a blessing.

A swift river would reduce wading, swimming and fishing. I have been told there are 50 lakes within 50 miles of the city of Bend, but having a beautiful Mirror Pond (our own small lake) within the city boundary is a most extraordinary and unbelievably wonderful and valuable plus for our city. Mirror Pond must be saved!

In Eastern Oregon about six miles east of Vale on the road to Ontario, you drive over a huge pipe that carries the irrigation water from the south high canal across the valley to the high canal on the north side — a land that used to be called “Dead Ox Flat.” I have stood in the mouth of the pipeline when no water was in the canal and estimate its mouth was 10 to 12 feet in diameter. The Owyhee Dam was built in the 1930s, one of the highest at that time in the world. It backs the Owyhee River up about 45 miles, providing irrigation water for an estimated 92,000 acres of virgin land mainly occupied by rabbits, coyotes, deer and other wild creatures. My family came to Oregon from Kansas to farm — we were one of many that came to Oregon refugees of the “Dust Bowl” years. We took 240 acres of those sagebrush acres and made productive crop land.

My idea is to dredge the Deschutes River on the east side of Mirror Pond and place a large pipe in the trench — big enough to carry all of the Deschutes River to the dam. This pipe can then become smaller as it approaches the dam to reduce the cost. The Deschutes River will be diverted into the pipe only during the removal of the silt in Mirror Pond. A temporary or permanent bridge will need to be built across the pipe. When the silt becomes dry enough it will be removed by trucks and taken to the county landfill and a small mountain made of the silt to be sold as prime soil to anyone needing some fill dirt to help defray the expenses. The pipe carrying the river water will be placed low enough so that when the ends of the pipe are closed and Mirror Pond is flooded again, it will be under water and invisible. This system should last a hundred years or more and could be reactivated when needed and the silt sold to provide money for the city or to pay on the original construction note — to pay for the construction.

Whatever, please do not tax the property owners to pay for this. If you need to levy a tax, have a small city sales tax where everyone chips in. The tax will automatically terminate when the cost of the construction is paid in full. Again, please do not place more taxes on the property owners — do I hear an Amen?

— Oscar Bratton lives in Bend and was the Deschutes County assessor from 1979-93