OMAHA, Neb. – Three U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District employees received the Department of the Army Civilian Service Achievement Medal for their outstanding service and stewardship of taxpayers’ dollars, July 16, 2026, at the Edward Zorinsky Federal Building in Omaha, Nebraska.
The medal was presented to Nicholas Ramge, Lynne Reed and Jeremy Szynskie following a six-month collaboration effort involving extensive coordination and persistence, which led them to successfully secure approximately $685,000 in project refunds.
Between January and June 2026, they worked together to request sales tax refunds on five recently completed construction contracts performed in Iowa where the contractors included sales tax on construction materials purchased from a quarry in Iowa in their bids.
While not all states allow refunds of sales taxes on construction materials, as each state has different ordinances and eligibility requirements, some states allow a sales tax exemption for federal contracts, but only before the purchase of materials. Typically, once sales tax is paid by contractors, those funds are retained by the state.
“Mr. Ramge, Ms. Reed, and Mr. Szynskie have shown tremendous initiative and awareness,” said Lee M. McCormick, Omaha District civil branch chief, contracting division. “Without each employee’s personal initiative and prompt attention, these funds would have remained with the State of Iowa. The amount of refund more than covers their salaries for this entire year. All three employees demonstrated exceptional responsibility, sense of duty, and set a remarkable standard for achievement.”
Reed, a contract specialist, learned the district could request refunds on completed contracts when looking on the Iowa Department of Revenue website for sales tax exemption information on active construction contracts.
Szynskie was the project manager for the five completed construction contracts. He collected information on the contracts and appropriations and organized team activities.
Ramge served as the contracting officer’s representative for the five complete construction contracts. He worked with the contractors to acquire documentation of sales taxes paid to analyze which costs were eligible.
“As USACE employees, it’s important to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, because a lot of people have worked very hard to earn the money that’s collected as taxes and used for the things we build,” Ramge said. “I try to pretend it’s my own money being used for the projects I work on and like to look for ways to get the best ‘bang for the buck,’.”
Ramge credited his coworker Corey Boyer for discovering the tax guideline specification, and commended support from contractors who took the effort of digging through every old invoice from their suppliers and documenting every dollar of tax paid.
“As you can imagine there was a lot of paperwork to figure out the sales tax paid on almost $11 million of raw materials from three rock quarries,” Ramge added.
Reed then submitted the refund requests to the Iowa Department of Revenue.
“I commend this team for being good stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars,” said Col. Robert Newbauer, former Omaha District commander. “Six months and a lot of extra effort, taking the time to look backwards and secure those funds paid off. I appreciate you all for hunting for the good and doing the taxpayers a solid.”
This process to recover the funds began in January 2026. Ultimately, the Omaha District received checks totaling $684,828.92 from the Iowa Department of Revenue.