“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.