SHERBURN — The Sherburn City Council met on Tuesday evening which was a change due to the Monday holiday.

Ean Sinn reported that the First Congregational Church in Sherburn had voted in agreement to sell the church building to him for a Funeral Home in Sherburn. He asked about rezoning or any other things that may be needed by the City. The Council will consult with the City Attorney but felt it was not a conflict since the building was zoned as a church already. Ean mentioned that the food shelf located in the building would stay where it is.

The City Public Works employee, Paul Shoen, reported that the water was back to 5, the usual hardness, from the very hard 45 or 10 it was when the Reverse Osmosis membrane was broken. He showed the council the broken membrane and answered their questions about how the cause of the hardness was found. He also mentioned that they plan to hold an open house at the water treatment plant in the spring. He also reported plans for gravel, roads, and hydrants.

In other business, the council revisited and approved the fees and license ordinance since the Chicken License was not discussed at the last meeting. The new ordinance about raising chickens was so new that they forgot to include it in the fees.

The new council asked about the two licensed people and what the ordinance says. The clerk, Andrea Ballard, explained the fee was $20 for three years. There is to be no butchering and no roosters and housing and cleanup are part of the ordinance. Those who want to raise chickens in the City must apply for a license.

Nikki Schwartz reported on an update on the Sherburn Theatre. It requires a new server, like a computer that runs the projector. She explained that each movie has a server and costs $50 to ship. The council asked if the server and more repairs mentioned could wait until next year since there is no money set aside and it should be included in the budget. They asked for a quote or more information about how much the server and other repairs would cost. Schwartz said she would look into the costs.

Trevor Yochim, Police Chief for Welcome and Sherburn, reported on the December patrols, house watches and community events the police did. He mentioned that detailing is on a new squad vehicle and is being installed with equipment that the old squad car could give. He hopes the new squad car will be ready in a month.

He reported that the part-time officer, Jared Schafer, is working, and answered the question about the feral cats loose in Sherburn. The police have gathered some and they are at the Martin County Humane Society. They are being tested for any diseases. If the animals are free of disease they will be kept.

The Clerk’s report included the information that the credit card was not in the City Hall’s name but was either Sherburn Liquor Store or the City of Sherburn. The new employee who checks the inventory, prices and other information is busy making needed changes.

There will be an official training session for new council members on Feb. 7 and 8 in Mankato and online. She applied for a grant to help with training for the second year at the institute for a week in May. It will be $100 of the $600 required. She has learned a lot from the first year and looks forward to the second year. Many things have been helpful in the city hall. There is also a Clerk Conference but Sean will not be able to go to that and she felt it was similar to the work she learned about in the first year of the institute. Sean will do some League of Minn. Cities training. The Midwest IT inadvertently deleted some shared files and received almost all of them back. She talked to them about letting her and Sean know if they need to find more room for files and to let them know about deletes in the future.

The Sherburn Council went into a closed session about property and insurance concerns.

The next Sherburn City Council meeting will be at 5 p.m. on Feb. 3 at the City Hall.