By Tom Paquin
Ayres Associates has had many long-term clients over
its history, but no client can top the longevity shown by the
Village of Strum. That’s because the Village in west-central
Wisconsin has been with Ayres Associates for all of the
company’s 50 years in business.
Village President Dean Boehne did a little research and
discovered from a past Village president that Strum was a
client of Garnock Engineering in the late 1950s. Owen
Ayres formed what is known today as Ayres Associates in
1959 when he and a partner bought Garnock Engineering.
The Village has been a client of Ayres Associates ever since.
Boehne, who has been the Village’s president since
2001, said he likes the multiple disciplines and diverse
expertise Ayres Associates offers. “In the time that I’ve
been involved, if we have questions that are outside of our
engineer’s area of expertise, she can get us in contact with
the right people to help us solve any problem,” Boehne said.
Disa Wahlstrand, manager of engineering services in
Ayres Associates’ Eau Claire office, is the current Village
engineer. She said Ayres Associates realizes the company
wouldn’t be around without clients such as Strum. “In our
business, relationships are everything,” Wahlstrand said,
“and the people in Strum are a joy to work with. They are
just genuinely good people with the best interest of their
community at heart.”
Clients such as the Village of Strum and many others
around the nation have helped Ayres Associates reach its
golden anniversary. With their help, we’ll be celebrating
many more years as a firm that provides innovative,
progressive services to clients we know by name.