Four years ago Stevan Brockman lost out on a spot on the village board by a mere 14 votes. As it stands now, he's made his way on by an even narrower margin of 12.

With the polls closed and the votes counted, and the absentee and early voting ballots added on, Brockman grabbed 789 of 3,402 votes, good enough for the third and final trustee spot that was up for grabs.

Celine Schwartz was the top dog with 922 votes and James "Mac" McDonald finished second with 899.

Incumbent Leroy Stahr was knocked off the board — at least for the time being. County Clerk Nancy Voots must still tally grace period and provisional ballots before the election results are made official on April 26.

"Well, they'll be something that goes wrong between now and then," said a pessimistic Brockman, who may have been grumpy because he was bothered in bed by a phone call from the Shorewood Patch letting him know he was an unofficial winner.

Brockman had turned in before the votes were counted, and he took down all his campaign signs before the polls closed. He did not hold out much hope for victory since he was a challenger going against three incumbents.

Despite his earlier skepticism, Brockman was at least able to return to sleep with pleasant thoughts of finishing in the top three.

"If it holds, it's payback for last time," he said, "because I lost by 14."