SUBLETTE — The Village of Sublette Board learned on May 14 that the vote it took in April, which retained Phalen Steel of Mendota as a design firm to help with the new maintenance building project, was invalid.

Village of Sublette President Michael Vaessen told the board during the village’s monthly meeting that the vote it took in April needed to have a two-thirds majority vote to be approved. The vote in April to retain Phalen Steel ended in a tie vote, with Vaessen breaking the tie vote by casting a vote for approval. Village of Sublette Trustees Richard Klaser, Brian Wilson and Scott Hanson voted yes, while trustees Julie Kessel, Laura Jackson and Jerry Leffelman voted no.

Vaessen told the board that due to an Illinois State Law, because the village was going with a design firm instead of hiring an engineering firm and bidding the job out, it needed to pass the motion by two-thirds majority. He told the board it had two options on Monday night. Option one was to entertain another motion to retain Phalen Steel as the design firm for the project, but, Vaessen said, everyone would have to vote yes on this motion for it to pass. Or, option two, have a motion to hire Willett and Hoffman, or another engineering firm, to design and put the project out for bids.

Vaessen told the board he found a quote from 2014 from Willett and Hoffman, and that back then, it would cost $16,500 for engineering work and $3,000 for advertising the bid.

“It’s a four-year-old proposal,” Vaessen said. “I’m not sure where the cost is going to come it at.”

Vaessen said if the motion to hire Willett and Hoffman was the way the board wanted to proceed, he would give the engineering firm the layout of the property and the three drawings that Phalen Steel had already completed for the village.

Leffelman asked where that would leave Phalen?

Vaessen said Phalen would be able to bid on the project. He added that he didn’t know if the village owed Phalen any money.

Jackson asked if someone else could construct a building and the village purchase it from them?

Vaessen said the only way that would work is if the property was outside the village limits, then the village would have to purchase the property and annex it into the village.

Kessel made a motion to contract with Willett and Hoffman to do the engineering of the maintenance shed and put it out for bids. Jackson seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously. Klaser was absent from the meeting.

In other board news:

• Vaessen said that the three more trees are coming to the Mini Park. The trees are currently blossoming and need for them to be hardened before planting.

• Vaessen told the board that Lee County is not getting as much money from tipping fees and is looking to split the cost of dumping the recycling bins in Sublette. He said it costs the county $170 each time the bins are dumped, which is about twice a month.

• Don Dinges reported that the cruise night was canceled due to weather and is being rescheduled for a Friday in June.

The next Sublette Village Board meeting will be held at 7 p.m., on Monday, June 11, in the Ellice Dinges Center.