SUBLETTE – The February Village of Sublette meeting had three common words, accept, approve, and pass.

The key words at the meeting on Monday, Feb. 12 at the Ellice Dinges Center surrounded different projects and happenings in Sublette that have been on the agenda for some time.

At a committee meeting on Feb. 6 the groundwork was discussed about many projects including the water main, storm sewer, and street work needing to be completed on Richmond, Virginia, and Reeve streets.  This carried over to a meeting on Feb. 8 where an engineer from Willett, Hoffman & Associates was in attendance to talk about the surveying work. 

The committee meeting on Feb. 6 also discussed sidewalk repair around the Ellice Dinges Center and downtown Sublette.

At the village meeting, the board approved a motion to elicit bids for contractors to replace the broken concrete on the front sidewalk, entrance way and by the backdoor of the EDC, as well as a 6x8 section on the Main Street sidewalk.

Recently, the Village of Sublette message board was turned off.

President John Stenzel and the board members acted quickly to reverse the result of miscommunication. 

“The Sublette Business Association used to own the village message board and then it turned it over to the Village of Sublette,” Stenzel said. “The invoice was never delivered because it was being sent to the association. The board was shutoff, but the contract is now renewed.

“We have some decisions to make because the company that supports the board is no longer going to have parts readily available for it. The Sublette board is going to start looking at other possible options. The message board could run for many more years, but we have to decide what we’re going to do when it no longer runs.”

Updates were given to the Sublette Comprehensive Plan as it should be officially completed by May after one more public hearing and it is presented to the village board.

Then a copy will be given to Lee County to be included into the county’s plan.

“You develop a zoning map within a 1 ½ mile of the village borders to see how the village wants to be built whether it’s commercial, residential, or light industrial,” said Stenzel, who was part of the board that put together the last Sublette Comprehensive Plan in 2005. “It shows which direction the village wants to go in. When you have a comprehensive plan that has been developed that states what’s going to go where, since we don’t do our own zoning the county can make changes, but when we have a plan, it has more pull or weight baring of what the village wants to do. The county then takes it into consideration before they say this should go there when it’s different than our comprehensive plan.

“It also lets us know what we’re lacking in Sublette and what residents want to see more of in town. We did a survey with the campgrounds and residents in town last February. We’ve compiled the surveys to help with the comprehensive plans.”

Also approved was for Stenzel, as acting mayor, to sign the agreement for the electric supply bid for the village electrical account which expires in May.

It was passed for the Municipal Aggregation Program Resolution, which is a combination of 11 communities.

On the Sublette calendar, Sublette 365 is hosting Dueling Pianos on Saturday, Feb. 24 at the Township Community Building.

The Ellice Dinges Center will be open Tuesday, March 19 for the General Primary Election.

The next Village of Sublette meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, March 11.