Archive

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TFM Enjoys a Night Out at the NH Fisher Cats!

On Friday, July 12th TFMoran Friends and Family gathered together at the Northeast Delta Stadium for a fun night of baseball, food, and games! The New Hampshire Fisher Cats played against Binghampton Rumble Ponies, losing with a final score of 6-4. Throughout the night, burgers, hot dogs, mac and cheese, and chicken were served. We also had a few special guests visit us during the game including Fungo, the Fisher Cat’s mascot, and Star Wars characters. As the night came to an end, cookies and ice cream were served! To top it all off a fun game of hit the target was played, with a few close hits by our own TFM’ers!

Thank you TFMoran Principals for this fun company outing!

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Ghanbari Becomes Survey Project Manager

We are pleased to announce Najad Ghanbari as a Survey Project Manager. Najad joined TFMoran in February as a Survey Technician. Ghanbari has over 18 years of experience in Land Surveying, including ALTA/NSPS surveys, existing condition surveys, and field operations management. Additionally, Najad recently passed his Principals and Practice of Surveying (PS) Examination and intends to take the New Hampshire Land Surveyor state-specific examination in the future.

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TFMoran Sponsors AIANH Tour at SNHU’s CETA Building

On Thursday, June 27th, TFMoran sponsored the AIA NH meeting and building tour at SNHU’s CETA Building. The new College of Engineering, Technology, and Aeronautics (CETA) Building is a recent project of TFMoran, providing land surveying, site design, civil engineering, and permitting services.

The meeting included a tour of the state-of-the-art academic building.

Special thanks to the photographer, John Hession Advanced Digital Photography for additional event photos.

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TFMoran Sponsors St. Anselm College 32nd Annual Scholarship Golf Tournament

On Monday June 24th, TFMoran COO Dylan Cruess and Dan Blais, Senior Project Manager attended the 32nd annual scholarship golf tournament hosted by Saint Anselm College. They were joined by Liam Watts, Brian White, Municipal Program Director at Freedom Energy Logistics, and Carol Anne Watts, Vice President of Sales at Freedom Energy Logistics.

TFMoran sponsored hole 3, with a closest-to-the-pin competition. After the tournament, there was a buffet with food and drinks and a raffle to bring the day to an end. TFMoran was very happy to attend this annual tournament and enjoy a fun golf day.

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TFMoran Hosts 2024 NHCIBOR Awards BBQ

TFMoran hosted the New Hampshire Commercial Investment Board of REALTORS (CIBOR) barbecue on Thursday, June 20th at the Bedford office. Over 100 CIBOR members and TFMoran staff came together for a nice night filled with amazing food catered by Tidewater Catering, along with some delicious ice cream from The Inside Scoop. TFMoran has been hosting the annual NH CIBOR cookout for over 17 years and is proud to partner with NH CIBOR each year for this wonderful event.

Dylan Cruess, TFM’s COO, gave a speech before the award ceremony welcoming all the amazing CIBOR guests who attended and also thanking those who helped make the night a great success. The president of NH CIBOR, Ethan Ash presented the awards to Brian Dano recipient of the REALTOR-of-the-year award and Ryan Theil, recipient of the Affiliate of the Year award. Cake was served at the end to celebrate the winners.

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TFMoran Sponsors Bedford’s First Robotics Team Red Storm 509

FIRST Robotics Team Red Storm 509 (sponsored by TFMoran) had many successes during their 2023-2024 season. Because of our donation, the team was able to host two FIRST robotics events, as well as expand their robotics mentorship by starting an additional FTC team, and begin a new FLL initiative through their new team.

This year was one of the most successful years for the Bedford First Robotics Team. With the help of our donation, they were one of two teams to earn the Engineering Inspiration award at the New England district championship event. Not only that, but the team placed 10th in their division, thereby placing the team in the top 2% of teams worldwide.

TFMoran as always is happy to help support the future of engineering. We are proud to be a sponsor and look forward to supporting your future endeavors! Great job!

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TFMoran Welcomes a New Intern to the Portsmouth Office!

Davis Leimanis just joined our Portsmouth office. He will be interning under Chris Rice in the Civil Engineering department, where he will help assist the Civil team. Davis is a senior in high school and is expected to be graduating from Portsmouth Christian Academy next May.

Davis currently has a Dual enrollment at Liberty University for coursework in Finance and Accounting, he also took a course on The Principles of Real Estate Investment at Harvard University. His goal from this internship is to gain experience and new knowledge within Civil Engineering.

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TFMoran Participates in NH CIBOR Cares 3rd Annual Charity Golf Classic

On Monday, June 10th members from TFMoran Dylan Cruess and Chris Rice played in the 3rd Annual NH CIBOR Charity Golf Tournament. The tournament was located at the Breakfast Hill Golf Club, in Greenland, NH.

NH CIBOR Cares mission is to help assist various organizations and individuals in need by providing scholarship opportunities and other important resources. Dylan Cruess and Chris Rice of TFMoran participated with Amanda Savage and Joeseph Campbell of North Branch Construction. Sadly, we were unable to bring home the trophy this year, but as always everyone had a great time on the course and was happy to support such a great cause.

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Nick Golon Featured in New England Real Estate Journal

New England Real Estate Journal’s June 7 issue features an article on solar energy by TFM Civil Department Manager and Principal, Nick Golon. Nick takes a deep dive into utility-scale solar facilities in New England and the challenges they may face in the early stages of development. See the whole article here, or continue reading below.


Harnessing the Power of the Sun with Utility-Scale PV

By Nick Golon

“Solar energy is the only permanent, inexhaustible fuel source for our civilization” – Nikola Tesla

With the words of Nikola Testa fresh in our mind, let us look to the remarkable growth undergone by solar photovoltaic (PV) generation in the last year with 23 Gigawatts (GW) of new solar generating capacity added in 2023, with even more substantial growth anticipated in 2024 with another 37 GW expected to come online based on the latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). These figures represent a 33% and 39% year-over-year increase. To put this in context for the baseball enthusiast this is the equivalent of going from light-hitting Mario Mendoza (known for his .200 batting average), to All-Star Rafael Palmeiro, to Hall of Famer Ty Cobb in the span of three years! These solar generation increases have been driven by many factors including lowered costs, aided by state and federal tax credits and downward pressure on prices due to wider availability of modules, but also the industry’s ability to build bigger, with the term “Utility-Scale” solar power becoming more prevalent. But what is utility-scale solar power, how can it benefit our communities, and what is driving this meteoric growth? Let’s discuss!

Although the exact definition of a “utility-scale” solar facility may vary depending on who you ask, the nature of the answer is typically the same in that it is a large-scale solar generator, 1 megawatt (MW) or greater, that connects directly into the power grid, supplying a utility with energy. Typically, there is a power purchase agreement (PPA) between a developer and the local utility, guaranteeing a market for the developer for a fixed term of time, but we are also now seeing utility-owned utility-scale solar projects, driven in part by utility providers ongoing efforts to support renewable energy initiatives. Although more top of mind, utility-scale solar is not necessarily a new technology, and has been generating reliable, clean electricity for decades. As quoted from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) “Developing utility-scale solar power is thought to be one of the fastest ways to reduce carbon emissions and put the United States on a path to a clean energy future”.

With the intent that utility-scale solar could put us on a path to carbon neutrality, what are the greatest challenges facing utility-scale solar facilities in New Hampshire? Well gentle reader, based on this author’s knowledge, it is location, location, location. In that the scale of these facilities requires approximately six to eight acres of usable land to accommodate 1 MW of generation (including solar equipment, panels, access, and stormwater management), finding a site of this size, and in appropriate proximity to existing utility infrastructure, is a challenge. On par with finding a site that meets these basic criteria are the challenges derived by local land use restrictions, as many municipalities did not contemplate the use of such facilities in the original provisions of their zoning and site plan regulations. Perceived environmental and wildlife impacts associated with land clearing and site preparation operations is also a challenge in the siting of these facilities, although these impacts may be offset with appropriate considerations for stormwater best management practices (BMP’s), the inclusion of appropriate buffers to sensitive receptors, and use of wildlife friendly fencing to accommodate wildlife connectivity.

Although the advancements in battery storage will be a prolific contributor to the advancement of solar science, we can also look in a different direction for innovation, as sometimes the best ideas are found in the most unlikely combination of two competing uses. In this case, agrivoltaics or dual-use solar and agriculture, is the use of land for both agriculture and solar energy generation. As one of the acknowledged drawbacks for solar is the conflict it presents with agricultural production, given they share the commonality of preferred land conditions that are flat and provide abundant sun, the co-location of such uses would provide benefits to both industries. Such facilities do exist in the New England area, with the 4.2-MW Rockport Maces Pond Agrivoltaic project, a dual-use community solar project located on a blueberry farm in Rockport, ME., as well as the ongoing efforts of the University of Massachusetts Amherst through their research team collaborating with approval solar developers and host farmers to implement agrivoltaic operations at site around the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Much like we see co-location of different land uses in a mixed-use land development project, it will be very interesting to see if this symbiotic practice of co-locating solar and agriculture can be successful.

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TFMoran Sponsors Angels Giving Back Fourth Annual 5K Road Race

TFMoran is a wing sponsor for the 4th annual Angels Giving Back Road Race that will be held on June 8th, 2024, in Johnston, RI.

Angels Giving Back is a non-profit organization honoring Mario and Valia Coletta, the founders of Colbea Enterprises / Seasons Corner Market. This charitable organization seeks to honor their legacy and generosity, holding several fundraisers throughout the year to raise money for various charities that were close to their hearts. 100% of profits raised at this event will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Association, the Tomorrow Fund, and Polycystic Kidney Foundation.