The success of Mary Warren, a professional engineer and president of the Black Horse Construction Group in Watertown, illustrates the “value” of a federal contract, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Black Horse Construction Group — a woman- and veteran-owned small business that is a certified 8(a) firm — has achieved steady growth […]
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The success of Mary Warren, a professional engineer and president of the Black Horse Construction Group in Watertown, illustrates the “value” of a federal contract, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).
Black Horse Construction Group — a woman- and veteran-owned small business that is a certified 8(a) firm — has achieved steady growth as a participant in the SBA program after being founded in 2006.
The SBA’s 8(a) business-development program seeks to help small, “disadvantaged” businesses compete in the marketplace, per an SBA document about the program.
Some of Black Horse Construction’s past clients include the U.S. General Services Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command North Atlantic Division, Fort Drum Public Works, and the U.S. Air Force Reserve.
Black Horse Construction has built projects ranging from $100,000 to $25 million in a variety of industries in which it operates, such as commercial and industrial buildings, heavy highway construction, and poured concrete foundations and structures.
“The last year was a perfect example of how federal government contracting has an undeniable positive impact on our economy. Throughout upstate New York, small businesses keep workers employed and are major employers. Especially in rural counties and underserved communities, SBA’s HUBZone and 8(a) Business Development programs can offer the access to government contracts, invaluable support and revenue enhancement as firms look to expand and grow,” Bernard J. Paprocki, director of the SBA Syracuse district, said in a statement.
Warren, a military veteran, is also a past Onondaga Small Business Development Center/Orange Community College Start Up & Grow series speaker. She has shared her story and discussed strategies for veterans and members of the military looking to start and expand their ventures.
Procurement scorecard
The SBA cited Warren’s efforts as it released details on the number of contracts the federal government awarded small businesses during fiscal year (FY) 2019, including more than $3 billion for those operating in New York.
That’s according to the SBA’s Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard for FY 2019. An SBA spokesman cited USAspending.gov as indicating Black Horse secured more than $7 million in “obligated FY19 funding” through federal contracts.”
The New York contracts are part of a “record-breaking” $132.9 billion in prime federal contracts — representing 26.5 percent of the federal contracting dollars — that were awarded to small businesses, the document shows. The federal government-wide prime contracting goal is to award at least 23 percent of all prime federal-contracting dollars to small businesses, the SBA said.
The agency also noted that the federal government also exceeded the goal for women-owned small businesses for the second time in the history of the scorecard-measurement program, having reached the five-percent goal for the first time in FY 2015.
The women-owned small businesses level for FY 19 was 5.19 percent, “setting a new record.”
The U.S. government also exceeded the goal for service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses for the 7th consecutive year, reaching the three percent goal for the first time in FY 12. That was in addition to surpassing another goal of contracts going to small disadvantaged businesses, where the agency continued the trend of year-over-year “record achievement” that “well exceeds” the five percent goal.
The FY 19 numbers are an increase of $12.1 billion over the previous fiscal year and marks the seventh consecutive year the federal government exceeded its small-business contracting goal, the SBA said.
Targeted sub-goals are also established for women-owned small businesses (5 percent), small disadvantaged businesses (5 percent), firms located in HUBZones (3 percent), and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (3 percent), as well which are meant to be subsets of the overall small-business goal of 23 percent.
“Over a quarter of federal contracting dollars awarded in the Empire State went directly to small businesses. These record-breaking national numbers are a boon to our small business community. The federal government is the largest purchaser of goods and services in the world; small businesses supply the U.S. government with the goods and services needed to operate,” Steve Bulger, regional administrator for the SBA Atlantic & Mid-Atlantic area, said.