POPLAR BLUFF SEWER RATES TO GO UP IN JANUARY

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Sewer rates will go up in January and again in January 2004 to pay for the city's latest sewer upgrade.

At a pubic hearing this week, Arthur Hartle of Smith & Co. announced that the rate increases would take the average residential user from a monthly bill of $7.41 to $9.68 next year and to $11.96 in 2004.

The rate is figured on a base rate plus a unit-per-volume charge, and the projected cost increases are figured at 3.1 percent a year.