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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us December 8, 2005 Talent adds surcharge to water bills Parks system will be funded by new, stable income source By Jamie Miller Tidings Correspondent TALENT — The city council passed an ordinance that will add a $1 surcharge to each home’s monthly water bill when it met Wednesday night. The increase of $1 per housing unit will be used to maintain and operate the city’s parks. The surcharge will be enacted by the Parks Maintenance and Operations Act. The ordinance will become effective Jan. 1, and billing will begin in February. The total budget for Talent’s parks system is set at $127,357 a year. The city funded the park system out of the general city fund before the ordinance was enacted. Previously, the only dependable funding for park maintenance was about $6,000. The money is collected from Talent’s transient room tax on the town’s motel. The Parks Maintenance and Operation Act surcharge fee will generate approximately $2,790 per month or $33,480 per year. All of the receipts collected from the $1 surcharge will be dedicated to the parks system. City Manager Betty Wheeler said the city will still need to contribute about $30,000 in additional funds to totally cover the yearly operating expenses of maintaining the parks. The remaining $40,000 of the parks budget carries over from year to year as reserve money; the money is appropriated to cover employment situations. Under the Parks Maintenance and Operation Act: • Apartment buildings will be charged according to an assumed 95 percent occupancy rate. The city will only bill in whole numbers. • Mobile homes, single family homes, accessory dwelling units, duplexes, and triplexes will be treated as single-family dwellings and charged as one unit each. • Schools will be exempt to the charge. Talent’s schools have their own park facilities, which are often available for the city to use. • Employers will be charged at the rate of one unit per 10 employees. The billing of businesses will be adjusted annually in order to account for employment fluctuations. • The Goodnight Inn will be exempt from the charge. It is already charged a transient room tax by city ordinance. The tax is used to fund the parks system. Talent has six public parks. Four of the parks are well developed, with benches, trees, restrooms and playground equipment. Two of the parks are grassy lots adjacent to Wagner Creek. In other business, the city council: • authorized Talent to join the PERS Rate Pool. The program benefits smaller governments like the city of Talent because it provides stability to the rates of employer benefits, such as disabilities and early retirement. If an out-of-the-ordinary claim is filed in a city participating in the program, the cost can be spread out over the entire pool. • planned two special public sessions in order to discuss the council’s strategic plan for the city. The facilitated sessions will be Jan. 16 and Jan. 23. Mayor Telerski said, “We can focus on people’s vision of the city and where we want the city to be in a few years.” • accepted a water line easement for the Phoenix-Talent School District. The water line is part of an installation to serve the ball fields on Colver Road. • appointed Doug Warner to the Economic Development Committee. Warner, of Ashland, volunteered to serve on the committee. He is the managing director at the Camelot Theater at 101 Talent Ave. His appointment will fill one of the open business slots. • accepted the resignations submitted by William Cecil and Carol Malcolm. Both members of the planning commission are leaving Jan. 1. In her resignation, Malcolm requested to be reassigned to the planning advisory board. The council granted her request. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams