CEYLON — The Ceylon City Council met on Tuesday evening and the new council members had been sworn in at a previous time. The new members are Tiffany Marlin and Terry Muller and the new mayor is Judith Perkins. They joined Wayne Walter and Lon Oelke as a council.

The council made the following appointments for the new council years: Lon Oelke as Acting Mayor, Wayne Walter as Street Department, Tiffany Marlin as Cemetery Board, Terry Muller as Fire Association, Judith Perkins and Lon Oelke as Ordinance Officers and Mary Muller as Treasurer. The Portage Bank will remain the depository, as will the Photo Press the newspaper, Tom Beckendorf for plumbing and electrical, excavation will be determined as will the City Attorney and Tom Bentz was approved to rent the old city hall building again.

The council approved keeping the wages for the council members as they have been. It also approved adding the new members and Mayor to the bank signature list. The council discussed the cannabis ordinance offer from the county and approved going through the county should anyone want to sell cannabis in Ceylon and follow their rules.

The council approved finishing the sidewalk on Main Street after the demolition of the uninhabitable buildings with MnDOT. Demolition of the buildings and repairing the old city hall building and some water issues will be discussed at a work session that the council scheduled for 6 p.m. Jan. 21 at city hall with Bolton and Menk engineer Travis Winter. The plan is to look into infrastructure grants for some help with the expenses.

In other business, city employee reports included further plans to fix the water issues with the pump and water system.

Two street lights will need repair and the city lift may not be high enough so someone may have to be hired. Christmas lights got moisture inside and some did not work and since they are 30 years old they may have to be replaced. This may be very expensive with some costing $1,500 a piece.

Regarding the Christmas Lights Contest, the city could not purchase gift certificates so utility rebates were given to all.

The city was inspected by the Department of Health and the water samples passed. However, the yearly inspections did not mention some of the items mentioned this year, and those will need to be fixed, such as some pumps to the outlet and the chlorine pump.

The council reported on the Fire Association meeting in December where new officers were elected. The expense for a fire call was increased. There was a three-percent increase to the Fire Relief Association and the dates for pancake brunch fundraisers were discussed. The pension may not be given to firefighters who did not attend meetings, fires or training.

Another council report was about the quotes for the removal of the fire debris by Ponderosa and the council approved the quote of $80 per ton for that removal since some toxic waste is included in the debris. An auction next week will allow the city to purchase four new tires for the skid loader. The council approved an amount to be bid by Councilman Walter.

The next meeting of the Ceylon City Council is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Feb. 11 at City Hall.