Most of the buildings we work on are paid for with somebody else's money. Getting that money spent correctly is a service in its own right.
On a privately funded job the owner decides and the work happens. On a grant-funded job a third party stands between the owner and the money, did not sign either contract, has its own forms and its own review queue, and holds the checkbook.
Three things follow, and towns learn them the hard way. The agency's review time becomes your construction schedule. Most of the administrative work on the project is compliance rather than architecture. And skipping a gate can make finished work retroactively ineligible, which means the building is standing and the reimbursement is gone.
On Woodbury Fire Station Phase II, eighty-two days passed between bid opening and the contractor being legally allowed to start. Almost none of that was design or construction. It was agency review, including a single thirty-day stretch of silence. We build that into the schedule now, and we tell towns about it before they promise a start date.
One row per funding source, with columns for the procurement rule, wage rule, environmental and historic review, reporting cadence, reimbursement mechanism, and completion deadline. Where a project has two funders the more restrictive requirement controls, and this is where you find that out. We walk the contractor through it at the preconstruction conference.
How many days, in which publications, in which plan rooms, with documented proof. Posting it on a website is not advertising. The agency wants to see how you advertised, who bid, what they bid, and why you picked who you picked, before anyone signs.
Agency-prescribed forms, or AIA forms with the agency's attachments and signature pages. Whether federal Davis-Bacon or Vermont prevailing wage attaches, settled before bid documents go out, because it changes every bidder's number. Build America, Buy America requirements checked against what is specified.
No work passes a gate without written, dated concurrence from someone authorized to give it. Not a phone call where they seemed fine with it. This is the single rule that separates a reimbursed project from a clawback.
Payment requests on the agency's form, on the agency's clock, with the backup they require. Monthly budget reports, quarterly reports, and inspection records, each with its own deadline. Reimbursement comes after the town has already paid the contractor, which is a genuine cash-flow problem for a small town, and it should be planned for at the start.
Final documentation, retainage release, and the agency's closeout package assembled while the people who know the answers are still on the job.
USDA Rural Development at Woodbury Fire Station Phase II, through the full three-gate structure. State Municipal Energy Resilience Program work under contract with the towns of Irasburg, Glover, and Sheffield. U.S. Treasury Capital Projects Fund through the Vermont Department of Libraries at Leach Public Library. Economic Development Administration and Vermont Community Development Program funding on the Hardwick Yellow Barn. VTrans funding on the Glover salt shed, where the NEPA review alone ran 5.3 months.
See our projects →Usually comes before
Feasibility & Facility Assessment
Existing conditions, code and accessibility review, and options with order-of-magnitude costs. Sold on its own, and how most bigger jobs start.
Usually comes after
Owner's Representation
We represent the town, not the contractor: procurement, schedule and budget oversight, payment review, and a complete record at the end.
Next step
Tell us the program and where you are in it. If you have not applied yet, that is the best time to talk.