BEND, OR -- The Bend City Council will vote Wednesday night on whether to move forward on plans to remove the Mirror Pond Dam and allow the river to flow more naturally.  The Mirror Pond Ad Hoc Committee has come up with this vision after many public meetings getting feedback.  Foster Fell, the partner of Bend City Councilor Barb Campbell has been an opponent of the latest plan and wil  be addressing the council at the meeting.  "I'm opposed to Mirror Pond as conceived by the Ad Hoc Committee.  I think it will lead to  further environmental consequences and degradation to the pond and it would impose a budgeting burden on the citizens of Bend."

Fells says most of the previous City Council votes have been unanimous, but he expects that at least a couple councilors will vote against the current plan.  "So far, the vote from the city council has been unanimous in support of removing the dam and preserving Mirror Pond.  But that will be a thing of the past at their meeting Wednesday.  One, two, maybe three city councilors are going to vote against this Mirror Pond vision.  I think its a sign there's a crack in the coalition wanting to push the pond and new dam."

Fell says going forward with the new plan would still require the pond to be dredged and it would continue to be expensive to maintain.