By MARK FREEMAN

The concrete wall and the sludgy Bear Creek pond it creates will give way to an aesthetic fish stairway this summer when Jackson Street Dam finally falls.

After 20 years of Medford fantasizing about how a damless creek could look, the vision all but materialized Tuesday when a contractor offered to cut away the dam for less money than the city had budgeted.

The $290,556 bid by a Portland-area contractor was the lowest of six bids opened Tuesday for removal of the old irrigation dam judged a fish-passage barrier and downtown eyesore since the '70s.

All that's left are a few formalities, and the work will start June 15.

When finished in October, this former algae bog will become a stretch of creek flowing freely through native shrubs and wild rose.

With the dam could go its reputation as a liability to downtown -- and the creek might even become an asset, said Gary Wheeler, a Medford optometrist who has worked more than five years on removing the dam.

"You won't walk over the (Jackson Street) bridge and look out over that beautiful algae bloom anymore," Wheeler said.

"It's never going to look pristine, but that's the nature of Bear Creek," he said. "Hopefully, we'll have businesses along the creek starting to look that way, instead of toward Riverside (Avenue)."

The low bid was submitted by Arlyn Davis Construction of Sherwood. The city's engineers estimated the project's cost at $250,000-$350,000. Bids were as high as $686,000.

The winning bid will be formally awarded Monday by the Medford Urban Renewal Agency, which has overseen the project.

Monday's vote will cap a lengthy process during which the agency has galvanized public support and dug out funding to remove the dam.

"This is the work nobody wanted to do," said Marsha Danielson, the agency's project coordinator. "This is the big barrier."

The dam has been a barrier to the creek's water quality and the migration of salmon and steelhead ever since the structure was built 37 years ago to divert water to two nearby irrigation districts.

A silt-laden pool has formed behind the dam, contributing to the creek's poor water quality.

The dam and fish ladder hurt wild salmon and steelhead runs, biologists have said. Removing the dam and restoring the original creek channel should help chinook routinely reach 20 more miles of upstream spawning beds previously cut off to them.

A new diversion was built upstream in 1996 so irrigators can collect their water, rendering the dam unnecessary.

Plans are to cut the dam to its base, leaving a concrete step across the creek. Two more steps will be added to create a terracing effect.

Gravel will be added between the terraces, and the center of each terrace will be notched. Jump-pools for fish will also be added.

The result will be something of a stairway for the creek to cascade down at any water level, with easy passage for fish regardless of where the creek meanders.

About 5,200 cubic yards of material -- 500 dump-truck loads -- also will be removed from behind the dam.

"Who knows? We may find Jimmy Hoffa in there," Wheeler said.

Two-tenths of a mile of the creek bed through Medford will be rechanneled and readied for local service clubs to replant with bank-stabilizing vegetation -- and a few wild roses to please the eye.

The work will bump the cost of the entire project to almost $1.4 million.