Community Involvement

CFS provides a wide range of services to engage a variety of stakeholder groups in the planning process. This includes communications, stakeholder engagement, public education and outreach. We take technical and complex policy and design information and make it easily understandable for diverse groups - a scenario where stakeholders feel empowered and able to engage in the process. We utilize various levels of technology but never forget that the public involvement process is best served by traditional face-to-face discussion. At the core of our municipal work is the philosophy that successful projects are led by a shared community vision. We are regularly tasked with incorporating the perspectives of citizens, government, regulatory agencies, and special interest groups into our projects to achieve the highest mutual benefit to all involved. We are committed to bringing individuals together so that all “voices” are heard and realized.

Cost Estimation

With extensive knowledge of the local construction industry, CFS provides the most accurate and real-time construction cost estimates. Throughout the entire project process we constantly attempt to remove the potential for unknown factors that would tend to raise contractor’s bids. Each of our projects also goes through a review for constructibility and value engineering. This practice has proven invaluable on many past projects by ensuring that CFS designs are constructible, cost efficient and prove to be the best, most common sense solution to the challenge at hand.

Creative Funding

We know that many cities, counties and agencies move forward with planning and in many cases, don’t have the answers with how to ultimately fund their desired improvements. The CFS Team includes individuals with over twenty years of experience helping communities move projects from a vision to reality. Our team has experience analyzing existing revenue streams, recommending efficiency measures and identifying new funding sources, both public and private. In recent years, CFS has master planned and assisted with the development of numerous public/private partnerships. Over this period, CFS has developed great expertise in assisting local public agencies and private organizations with acquiring funding for much needed improvement projects. It is public/private partnerships like these that have created and continue to spark growth in communities that are proactive toward development.

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CFS is skilled in assisting our clients to identify and obtain various types of funding for water resources projects, including state revolving loans and grant opportunities.

Permitting

We provide permitting services for Stormwater Pollution Prevention, Army Corps of Engineers, NEPA, Endangered Species, Cultural and Historical, and Noise applications. 

Project Management

Your project is more than a one-time transaction; we cultivate relationships with all project team members. Our main goal as a project manager is to ensure our clients are satisfied with the end result of a project. To bring value to a project, our staff utilizes a project management system which provides weekly or bi-weekly check-ins delivering customized solutions. As an extension of your staff, we act as your trusted advisor.

Railroad Coordination

Many projects are located within areas of railroad rights-of-way and require coordination with railroad companies to ensure that all requirements are met and the project is not delayed. CFS keeps abreast of each company’s rules and regulations and pro-actively coordinates projects with private railroad owners.

Utility Coordination

CFS Engineers will proactively manage utility coordination efforts by meeting with each utility company to verify existing utility locations and integrate the vital information into our design to identify potential conflicts and outline relocation requirements. This work, early in the project development process, helps to ensure that future change orders and cost overruns do not occur. CFS also provides as-builts and relocation management services.