The Trump administration is spending a further $682,000 on repairs to Washington, DC’s troubled Lincoln Reflecting Pool, Our News Outlet can reveal.
According to the contract, the Department of the Interior awarded the work to Virginia-based Persimmon Grove LLC. The company will replace valves at the landmark attraction.
The project is scheduled to run from September 10 to October 15. It forms part of the government’s latest repair efforts and takes the total cost of work on the pool above $15 million.
Separate contracts show that Persimmon was also paid $488,000 to clean Constitution Gardens Lake, located beside the Lincoln Reflecting Pool. The lake was drained ahead of celebrations in July marking America’s 250th birthday.
The ongoing problems at the Lincoln Reflecting Pool have become an embarrassment for the Trump administration, after large areas of its surface began to flake away following a repainting carried out by a contractor personally selected by the president.
Donald Trump hired Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings to repaint the pool American Flag Blue ahead of the July 4 celebrations. The company had previously worked on swimming pools at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia.
Within days of the work being completed, however, green algae had returned to the water and broad sections of the new paint had started peeling.
Trump initially estimated the project would cost $1.8 million. Atlantic is now set to receive $14.7 million through the no-bid contract.
The Department of the Interior awarded Persimmon Grove LLC a $682,000 contract to repair the Lincoln Reflecting Pool
The pool has experienced repeated problems since being repainted blue, including a return of green algae. The pool is pictured in June
The president initially attributed the damage to vandals. But this week, Atlantic Industrial Coatings acknowledged that mistakes had been made during the paint application, The New York Times reported.
The Persimmon contract is valued at $682,631 and covers the maintenance, repair and rebuilding of equipment, including pumps and compressors.
Persimmon is owned by William Phillips, whose family run a lawn maintenance business that has earned numerous federal contracts going back years.
In recent years, Persimmon has been awarded millions for maintaining various sites around Washington DC, and that included work ahead of the America 250 celebrations.
In April, the company was awarded $488,000 for repairing and cleaning the Constitution Gardens Lake.
The work also involved repairing the pumps and the compressors.
At the time, members of the public asked on forums, like Reddit, why the pools were being drained, but the cost of the operation was not known until now.
After Trump claimed that vandals were to blame for the fiasco at the Lincoln Reflecting Pool, several individuals were charged with felony vandalism, including former Olympic canoeist David Hearn.
The job runs from September 10th to October 15th and is part of the latest efforts to repair the pool, bringing the total cost of the job to more than $15 million for the Trump Administration
He could have faced up to 10 years in jail for the charges, which were brought by the city’s US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a Trump ally.
But the case was dropped after prosecutors admitted that the damage to the pool’s lining was due to a ‘botched’ renovation effort.
The reversal led to the president venting his fury at Pirro and saying he disagreed ‘100 percent’ with her.
On Truth Social, Trump accused her of ‘folding like an umbrella’ and wrote: ‘I don’t know what she was thinking?’
The message is said to have led to a fiery showdown in the Oval Office between Pirro and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, according to reports.
This week The New York Times reported that Atlantic Industrial Coatings admitted in a report to the Interior Department that it had messed up the original work.
In reports dated August 14th and September 2nd, Atlantic blamed ‘human oversight’ for using two chemicals that were not compatible.
Our News Outlet has contacted Phillips and Persimmon for comment.
Workers seen doing repairs on the pool in late August. Permission’s contract is to ‘maintain / repair / rebuild equipment,’ specifically pumps and compressors
A worker sprays at the pool’s broken liner in August. The Interior Department said that the pool’s water valveswere ‘falling apart’ and are being replaced
Workers repairing the pool in late August after a rushed job was carried out to make sure it was ready for America’s 250th anniversary celebrations
In a statement, the Interior Department said that the pool’s water values were ‘falling apart’ and are being replaced.
The statement said: ‘Like any major construction project – and in this case, the world’s largest reflecting pool which was worked on in record time for the 250th celebrations – there are always parts of a project where a contractor returns to make sure the work is perfect.
‘And in this case, with the major vandalism of long razor-blade gashes, the contractor is also replacing the sections of the pool damaged by vandals, who also repeatedly reached into the pool and ripped at the coating.’
