Funding

SMA is experienced and capable of assisting clients in obtaining funding for many projects, ranging from $50,000 to $12,000,000.

For the past six years, we have worked with more than 70 communities on projects funded by more than $40 million in grants and loans, including $6 million from the USDA-RD. SMA has assisted many types of communities, from urban centers to sparsely populated rural communities, and helped secure some of the first grants that NMFA made available for water system improvements. We have also worked with the Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) to help communities obtain funding and technical assistance throughout New Mexico.

In 2009 the Water Trust Board awarded $32 million in loans/grants for 40 projects. SMA was providing services to clients for 18 of those projects (45% of the total projects), and clients received approximately $6 million (or 19%) of the funds awarded. Of all the firms serving clients awarded funds, only SMA had more than two projects funded. There were three large regional projects (non-SMA) that were awarded $15 million of the funds.

 

Working with the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA)

With the recent influx of federal stimulus monies from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) into the market, SMA has been involved on several levels working with the federal funding guidelines, including performing engineering design, providing ARRA compliant bid documents, providing construction oversight, reviewing of equipment and materials complying with the Buy American provisions of the ARRA 2009 guidelines, and reporting employee hours and job creation. Recent SMA projects have included US Department of Transportation funding, BIA funding, and Environmental Protection Agency funding.

During engineering design, attention is given to coordination of developing Environmental Assessment and Environmental Impact Documentation for the project site. During the bidding phase, SMA has modified standard EJCDC construction contract documents to incorporate federal reporting, Buy American provisions and federal wage determinations to deliver a set of useable documents which allow for flexibility of federal funding while maintaining ARRA requirements.

Additionally, during engineering design, the Buy American Provision of the ARRA 2009 is used as a reference enabling SMA to select suitable equipment for the completed project. In the case of required equipment not being available under the Buy American provision, waivers are acquired from EPA for continuation in design. During construction, SMA works with the Owner and the contractor in provided services to maintain the standard of the “Buy American” provisions, while reviewing equipment and supplier falling under the de minimis guidelines.

During construction, SMA has experience in the capacity of reviewing the job creation and compliance of recipients, sub-recipients and vendors. SMA also has experience with several projects requiring the reporting of wages paid and job creation. With experience reviewing the type of information required by the federal reporting guidelines, SMA has the ability to create concise reports detailing the required information in formats suitable for use by both recipients and Department of Energy.