It wasn’t unanimous, but Palmerton Area School District’s board of directors came out of Tuesday’s meeting with its next engineer of record.

By a 5-3 vote, the district hired Keystone Consulting Engineers, one of three firms that applied for the job. Earl Paules, Josh Smale, Kate Baumgardt, Barry Scherer and Kathy Fallow voted for Keystone, while Charles Gildner, Tammy Recker and Sherry Haas voted no.

Just before that vote, the board deadlocked 4-4 on a motion to hire EI Associates with Baumgardt, Fallow, Haas and Recker voting yes, and Gildner, Scherer, Smale and Paules in opposition.

Besides Keystone and EI Associates, the other applicant was Barry Isett and Associates, which had been Palmerton’s engineer since 2010.

All three firms interviewed in front of the board during a workshop two weeks ago.

KCE touted several of its projects including a new fitness center for Lehigh University in downtown Bethlehem and site work for a 40,000-square-foot high school expansion in Northwestern Lehigh School District.

The firm is also the engineer for projects in Palmerton borough.

“We would come in and meet with the board to make sure we’re doing what you guys want,” Al Kortze, KCE president, said. “Every client has different needs and we would be here for whatever those may be for the district.”

After the vote on Tuesday, Gildner questioned Scherer on whether it was a conflict of interest for Scherer to vote for Keystone since he is an employee of Palmerton Borough, which also employs the firm.

“No,” Scherer answered. “I have no financial interest in the firm.”

In its proposal to the district, KCE listed its cost for a principal/professional engineer at $132 per hour and a senior engineer/project manager at $114.50 per hour.