BLUE EARTH– The Blue Earth City Council held its very last council meeting on Tuesday in the building that has served as the Blue Earth City Hall for many years.

The City Hall staff has already moved into the new City Hall, which is in the totally remodeled former Wells Fargo bank building.

The City Council’s next meeting will be held in the council chambers in the new City Hall, on Monday, Feb. 3.

The city staff and council plan to hold an open house on that day, from 3 to 5 p.m., with the first council meeting in the new site starting at 5 p.m.

The biggest news at Tuesday night’s meeting was that the former City Hall already has a buyer.

The council learned that there is a purchase agreement for the building, which includes the City Hall offices, the bays of the former fire hall and the office currently used by the Blue Earth Area Mentors (BEAM) group.

The buyer is Faribault County, it was revealed at the council meeting. The purchase price is $283,100.

“If you approve this purchase agreement, then it will go to the County Board to give final approval at their second meeting in February,” city attorney David Frundt said. “The agreement does not include the parking lot area behind the building.”

The council did vote to proceed with the sale. It also approved selling the excess furniture of the old City Hall at auction.

City administrator Mary Athey reported to the council that the move went smoothly, and thanked the Public Works Department for their help in moving everything to the new location.

“We are open for business there from 8 to 5 each day,” she said. “We have had people come in and some have used the new drive up window.”

In other business at the meeting, the City Council:

— Held a closed session for the annual performance evaluation of city administrator Athey.

— Approved appointing Kara Drake and Stephanie Dyslin to the Economic Development Authority.

— Looked over a draft of a new Parks and Facilities Donation Policy. Action on the policy will be taken at a later date.

— Heard a report from city engineer Ben Rosol concerning striping of city streets, specifically for a proposed bike lane on Main Street, 14th Street and Rice Street.

The council decided to delay any action until they had a chance to study five different options.

— Heard from several citizens during the public comment part of the meeting concerning the sale of several lots by the Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) to a contractor for $1 each.

The citizens questioned why other local contractors were not given the same opportunity to purchase the lots. The answer was that the lots had been on the market for some time and no one had expressed any interest.