SHERBURN– The Sherburn City Council met Monday and approved naming Bolton and Menk as agents for the Transportation Bill monies to improve Osborne Street. Because Sherburn is not a 5,000 population city, it needs another agent to handle the monies granted by the Transportation Bill. The council also approved obtaining two properties due to back taxes not paid and plan to demolish the houses to prepare the lot for development.

The council accepted a donation of $3,000 from Compeer Financial for the Fire Department’s Air Packs as part of a grant and the city will finish paying the rest of the $3,500 it will cost as part of the capitol improvement budget.

In other news, the council heard a presentation of a request for an easement for the half of the triangle piece needed near Temperance Lake Road for the new sub station planned to be built by REA. Jeremy Smith from JCG Land Services explained the easement of 25 feet east and north of the road. His company handles the applications and policy for ITT Midwest who will own the transmission line which will come from the east/west line to the new station. They would handle any repair agreements if needed when the project is finished. There will be several poles about 175 to 200 feet apart on the triangle which is less than an acre. The council approved the easement and paper work was signed at the

meeting with a payment to the city.

The meeting continued with the Administrator’s Report. Brad Hughes reported that the auditor, Eide Bailley, will be charging almost double next year and he has reached out for bids from other auditing companies. He will report at the next meeting.

Hughes also reported that the applications for Deputy City Clerk position had about five or six people to chose from. The whole council will interview the top two candidates. He also reported the estimated cost of building townhouses on properties where the houses will be demolished. The council agreed that they would prefer to sell the townhouses rather than the city owning them and renting them. Hughes will get some estimates for speculated housing too. One estimate he found was for $200,000 a unit.

In other news, Council members brought up doing something for the Fire Department since it is Fire Prevention Month. No action was taken. The Fire Department had trouble opening some hydrants as part of their training. There were about 30 hydrants that the city crew had to open and oil so they would be usable. Some had rusted and had been painted and not cracked so they would open. Council member Ringnell suggested a plan that would flush the hydrants at least once a year and oil them all. The flushing takes a lot of water and so not all can be flushed at once. Hughes will make a plan with the city crew to flush, check and oil all the hydrants in the city a few at a time to keep the hydrants in working order in case of a fire in the neighborhood.

The next meeting of the Sherburn City Council is scheduled for 5 p.m Oct. 18 at City Hall.