CDPHE received more than $750 million in funding requests in response to its call for projects—an overwhelming identification of project needs that were competing for $60 million in available funds. The funding also had one major requirement that would prove challenging for Georgetown: the money was available only for “shovel-ready” projects that could start construction by September 30, 2009.

With a little over six-and-a-half months to the deadline, Frachetti Engineering worked closely with Georgetown to complete the design, secure design approval and award the construction bid by September 30.

“We knew we had to employ an aggressive and creative approach to meet that critical deadline,” said Bob Frachetti. “The team focus allowed the town’s projects to solicit ARRA funding by meeting its eligibility criteria.”

Georgetown was awarded $9.2 million in ARRA funding, consisting of $5 million in 0% interest loans and $4 million in loan forgiveness, the second-largest amount ARRA award in Colorado and the largest principal forgiveness awarded to a single Colorado community.

“We learned a lot of lessons during this project and the funding process, especially how important it is to communicate with your town’s Board of Selectmen and all municipal stakeholders,” Curits said.

The project team included the owner, the Town of Georgetown; Frachetti Engineering Inc. and contractor Fischer Construction Inc.