SHERBURN — During the Sherburn City Council’s meeting on Monday evening, a Cornerstone Management company representative requested an extension of the contract to Dec. 31, 2026 as the council discussed at the last meeting. She mentioned a change in the management would adversely affect the staff and clients at Temperance Lake Ridge. She mentioned that leadership has been working on concerns brought up at the last council meeting.

The council approved keeping the Cornerstone management until Dec. 31 and then re-evaluating the contract. However the council discussed looking around at management companies for future years informally.

The representative also asked about the plan to add the TLR Executive Director and one management company representative to the TLR Committee membership. The council has Rick Behne on the committee but he is a new councilman and new to committee. The council approved adding the TLR Executive Director and one member from management company to the TLR Committee.

The council discussed the Joint Powers agreement between the Sherburn, Welcome, Trimont and Dunnell communities. The public works and the council both voiced opinions that they should keep the Joint Powers agreement to work together with other towns. Some large equipment is too expensive for an individual town. The Sherburn community needs a member on the committee and Behne volunteered. Each town pays according to their population. Meetings are to be held quarterly. The council approved asking for a scheduled meeting quarterly and accepting Rick Behne as the member from Sherburn. The council discussed the options to encourage residents to sign up for the Portal Nuvei and E billing with the City Hall staff. One option was to give a one time $10 discount and one option was to give a $10 annual discount and one option was to give a $2 monthly discount. After discussing the different options and the advantages to save time and work for the City Hall staff and the postage expenses the council approved the $2 monthly discount. Residents will be informed about the discount in hopes that more will use the portal and e billing.

Clerk Andrea Ballard reported data requests concerning TLR, owner of the hidden cameras at TLR identified and water main break concerns. Ballard praised Deputy Clerk Sean Devenn for stepping up and helping with the water rounds and when the public works were busy with the water main break.

Concerning the public works working on the water main break, she explained that one member was on Paid Time Off and one was hospitalized, and the City Hall staff was scrambling to get help from nearby towns. In light of this, she suggested a part-time employee be hired year-round instead of just for mowing in the summer months. The council discussed the pros and cons and what training would have to be done, especially concerning the water tasks. They asked if the employee would do City Hall tasks. Ballard said it would help in certain circumstances but realizes the public works employee would be the first priority. The council approved advertising for the position if one could be found that is experienced or trained in water works.

Bolton and Menk Engineer Travis Winter reported on the sewer problem near the P&J Motel, which was discussed at the last meeting. According to notes from the 2010 repair, he said there were two sewer services and one was under the buildings of the coop near the site. The water main trench affected the sewer. A two percent grade is building code and so 2.5 feet of fall was needed. The fall was two inches from the city sewer. He said there may have been some mitigating circumstances such as it was not put back correctly, settlement and second service was not fixed. The Saddle Y is a common fix and it should have worked well, perhaps it settled so it was down instead of up. The back fall noted now is a change and he asked what had changed in 15 years.

In other business:

— Marcy McNeal asked to replace the water heater that Day Plumbing said was broken in the Memory Care Spa. It would be $14,000, and she asked the council to approve the expense. The council approved replacing the water heater.

— The council approved asking Embark to reimburse them for the $15,000 advanced when management was scheduled to change since the contract was not fulfilled and no work was completed. The City Attorney requested a closed session to insure confidentiality about rescinding the Embark contract and the council approved it, after the regular meeting on Feb. 17.

— The council had changed the date of their next meeting because the regular date is President’s Day.

— The sale of the liquor store was discussed since some of the yearly financials were ready. With the partial reports ready, it appeared that the liquor store made a profit of about $44,000 for year 2025. The council tabled action until all the reports are in.

The Sherburn City Council’s next meeting will be on Tuesday, Feb. 17.