Administration reuses contractor to repair Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool

The Trump administration will not seek new bids to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Sunday as he faced new questions about the troubled project and the taxpayer money involved. Like President Donald Trump, Burgum said he was 100% sure that vandals caused the damage to the century-old Reflecting Pool on the National Mall.

Trump has charged that a 350-foot gash was cut into the pool’s liner in the midst of recent renovations, while Burgum described it as multiple cuts adding up to that figure.

Damage and repair timeline He also said the pool would have to be at least partially drained in the coming week to finish the repairs. The repairs will not be opened up to new contractors. ” ”Thankfully, the vandalism was small. I mean, it could cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair, so then it could fall into a felony … just like damaging any other government property could.

Arrests and contract questions Authorities have arrested more than a half dozen people related in relation to Reflecting Pool damage, including former Olympian David Hearn, who was indicted last week on a felony of property destruction. The top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, said Hearn ripped up recently installed sealant on the pool in “a deliberate act” that caused more than $1,000 in damage.

” Meanwhile, questions loom over the no-bid contracts for the project that were awarded to vendors with prior ties to Trump. Ohio-based Green Water Solutions, also known as Greenwater Services, was given a $1.7 million contract to install a water-purification system in the Reflecting Pool, while Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded $14.7 million to repaint and waterproof the pool’s concrete floor.