Mail Tribune News - Talent to clarify its water rate ordinance

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Talent to clarify its water rate ordinance TALENT -- Water rates will be back on the City Council's agenda Jan. 6 after the council postponed a decision last week on a new rate ordinance. Increased water rates are required to pay for the city's share of a water intertie among Medford, Phoenix and Talent. While no one testified for or against the rate increases, council members wanted to clarify ordinance language relating to new water connection charges. Also last week, the city was formally presented with three checks which will help pay for the intertie: a $4,141,000 loan and a $2 million grant from the Rural Utility Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and a $2 million loan from the Oregon Safe Drinking Water Revolving Loan Fund. The grant from the Rural Utility Service represents one-sixth of all the fund allocations in the state this year. Design of the water intertie is scheduled to be completed in September 1999. Construction should begin in the spring of 2000 and be completed within a year, according to Tom Bizeau of the Rogue Valley Council of Governments, which is coordinating the project. Mail Tribune Copyright �  The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA