by Joseph Back

Smart enough to know what they’re not goad at That's how Ayres employee and engineer Lisa

Fleming described her firm as she sought to inter est the Common Council on Monday September 20 in potentially hiring Ayres for upcoming local projects. Having merged recently with MEP, Ayres was well equipped to help out the city, Fleming said.

As to the 'not good at' list, Fleming listed waste water, which she said was due to changing regulations and the present lack of a partner specializing in same. Ayres was looking, but hadn't yet found the right match for wastewater, while everything else was good.

We appreciate that,” Stanley mayor Al Haas said of Fleming being up front about what her firm could and couldn't do for the city.

Fleming, who started her career with the Department of Transportation before moving into the private sector, also said that she had worked on the North Crossing and Highway B among oth er projects.

See APPEARANCE, page 3

Lisa Fleming (right) of Ayres Associates shovsed up to talk projects with the council Momla> as Ward 3 alderman Mike Henke (left) looked on. Photo by Joseph Back “Where we should start is you make a list of projects and then prioritize them,” Fleming told the Council as it prepares the budget for the upcoming year. Recent projects have included a new bridge, Community Center, and police addition, with the first two administered by Cedar Corporation out of Menomonie and the third by city employee Dean Schneider as general contractor. The police addition is ongoing, while Cedar is just one firm the city has worked with, Ayres potentially another such firm.

“We stand behind our work,” Fleming told council members, even when it was to their detriment. That wasn’t all.

“I’ll tell you the truth and sometimes it hurts but it will be the truth,” Fleming said of what the City can expect if it partners with Ayres in the future. As general contractor Ayres would oversee different contractors on the job and while it couldn’t control individual contractor’s schedules, “we can be on them from day one,” Fleming said, with the basic understanding that a contractor’s job was to get in, get done, and then move along for the next one on a project. Before long it was time for questions.

“So Lisa, if we were able to get our list of projects and priorities, is there a possibility of doing projects in the summer of 2022?” Holly Kitchell asked of nine months hence.

“I think so,” Fleming said. Jason Meyer had a question of his own. “How are you handling what seems to be an increase in inflation?” he asked Fleming. “it isn’t so much pricing that’s gone up, but shortage,” Fleming answered, saying the firm took an approach that dealt specifically with affected materials rather than an across the board price rise.

Breaking the relative solitude of Monday’s rainy night, meanwhile, was a phone alert that went off mid-presentation. “It’s a tornado warning,” Ward 3 Alderman Jacob Huff said, while nothing on the ground was disturbed within the City of Stanley.