That pool with a dark coating, and being so shallow will heat up fast, which in turn fosters bacterial growth, algae growth and likely an unpleasant smell during warmer months.

MAROON said:

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Casco compliance is strong on this work crew.

Probably had to have them to keep AOC and Omar from throwing rocks at them doing work… cause Trump!

So found one of the Obama projects and see a problem with it…

https://www.sasaki.com/projects/lincoln-memorial-landscape-and-reflecting-pool/

Tell her plenty of MAGA hats remain on sale around the Mall.

And bubble tea. Lots of bubble tea.

And a food truck that serves everything from chicken tenders to falafels to enchilada plates and spaghetti.

aggiehawg said:

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That pool with a dark coating, and being so shallow will heat up fast, which in turn fosters bacterial growth, algae growth and likely an unpleasant smell during warmer months.

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It's DC there's already an unpleasant odor, it will blend right in.

Deerdude said:

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aggiehawg said:

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That pool with a dark coating, and being so shallow will heat up fast, which in turn fosters bacterial growth, algae growth and likely an unpleasant smell during warmer months.

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It's DC there's already an unpleasant odor, it will blend right in.

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That would also affect the efficiency of the filtration system, which is also being upgraded and replaced. Reason I brought up the color was because of the lawsuit against changing the color of the bottom of the pool froma dark charcoal gray to a blue.

txags92 said:

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That last picture with the bikes could have easily been mine when I rode in our city's parade in 1976. Cool memories!

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Our bikes looked exactly the same in Valdez, Alaska.

I found the rationale for the "emergency"… I think.

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/20/nx-s1-5719779/environment-washington-dc-sewer-spill-sewage-potomac-river

Combined with the article about Obama spending $35 million to pave paths, add LED lights to tree, and use sump pumps in the Potomac to fill a stagnant pool in a coastal swamp, tidal basin… and i think we have a strong basis for saying the reflecting pool needed a better answer.

Libs lack of intelligence is truly impressive.

Tell me there really is not a lawsuit over the color. I mean, not that it's beyond their antics.

🚨 Obama spent $34 MILLION of your tax dollars renovating the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

No Media meltdowns.

Here’s some reactions when it reopened 👇 pic.twitter.com/wV8wiNEM3U

— Alec Lace (@AlecLace) May 11, 2026

That's… awesome.

flown-the-coop said:

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Tell me there really is not a lawsuit over the color. I mean, not that it's beyond their antics.

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Yes, there is.

Quote:

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A 'preservation' group filed a lawsuit to block President Trump from painting the Reflecting Pool blue.
"The vivid blue coating will fundamentally alter the visual and experiential character of the pool and the broader Lincoln Memorial Grounds landscape," the group said in a complaint.
"The new coloration will cause the pool to resemble a large swimming pool rather than the reflective civic landscape it was designed to be, distorting the experience of the site for the millions of visitors who come to it each year," the complaint said.

This is the same nonprofit group that sued to stop the construction of President Trump's privately-funded White House Ballroom.

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LINK

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easy my arse. Lawyers and PIA/FOIA requests take time and many times money. Even then you will not get down to the exact evaluation process.

Source: I have done this for nearly 20 years for bids we won and didn't win.

I also have done single source procurements that were not emergency based. As others have mentioned, there are a whole hosts of exemptions for not competitively bidding a project.

Has anyone determined the special treatment and kickback about this award and why the awardee was not qualified and is charging exorbitant rates?

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I too have been in the procurement side for over 20 years and started a nice consulting gig for it.

You are already starting out wrong. As a FYI, Construction bids don't usually have an evaluation if it was a bid. Now if it was construction RFP associated with a D-B or CMAR, yeah, probably an evaluation.

Won't throw a rock at Trump on this one. If previous bids for the same work didn't achieve the desired outcome, he is well within bounds to ask for a sole source to do the work. The key would be knowing what the scope of the work was in previous bids and whether the desired outcome was achieved.

Also, FOIA requests are usually responded to quickly unless nobody understands the request or you're asking for something from multiple sources. Also, they do take staff time to complete in addition to normal staff duties so there is a cost and it is real. Contrary to what this board thinks, agencies don't have staff sitting around waiting for FOIA requests to come in.

oh no said:

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🚨 Obama spent $34 MILLION of your tax dollars renovating the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

No Media meltdowns.

Here’s some reactions when it reopened 👇 pic.twitter.com/wV8wiNEM3U

— Alec Lace (@AlecLace) May 11, 2026

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So essentially 0bummer spent five times the amount and it came out worse and no libs complained.

Yeah…….

I'm curious to hear how this will stop algae blooms. My pool had a tinted surface and it would still turn green and grow algae if I didn't run the pump or treat the water. How is painting the surface blue going to stop a largely stagnant body of water from developing algae blooms?


If this company has it figured out, kudos to them.

Look who’s in charge of maintaining the reflecting pool 👀😭 pic.twitter.com/pG9fNiREYB

— Gizmo Memes (@GizmoMemes) May 10, 2026

nai06 said:

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I'm curious to hear how this will stop algae blooms. My pool had a tinted surface and it would still turn green and grow algae if I didn't run the pump or treat the water. How is painting the surface blue going to stop a largely stagnant body of water from developing algae blooms?


If this company has it figured out, kudos to them.

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Duh. There is a filtration system also being replaced and massively upgraded. Water is not stagnant.

Also when we lived in Austin had several friends with lap or volleyball pools with that dark gray or black plaster. They had to put dry ice into them just to use them during summer.

Our pool was very large and deep (over 12 feet) and had a light blue plaster. Stayed cool and pleasant during the summer. The Hubs was in that thing every day he was not on duty.for about 9 months of the year.

FIDO_Ags said:

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Quote:

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easy my arse. Lawyers and PIA/FOIA requests take time and many times money. Even then you will not get down to the exact evaluation process.

Source: I have done this for nearly 20 years for bids we won and didn't win.

I also have done single source procurements that were not emergency based. As others have mentioned, there are a whole hosts of exemptions for not competitively bidding a project.

Has anyone determined the special treatment and kickback about this award and why the awardee was not qualified and is charging exorbitant rates?

---

I too have been in the procurement side for over 20 years and started a nice consulting gig for it.

You are already starting out wrong. As a FYI, Construction bids don't usually have an evaluation if it was a bid. Now if it was construction RFP associated with a D-B or CMAR, yeah, probably an evaluation.

Won't throw a rock at Trump on this one. If previous bids for the same work didn't achieve the desired outcome, he is well within bounds to ask for a sole source to do the work. The key would be knowing what the scope of the work was in previous bids and whether the desired outcome was achieved.

Also, FOIA requests are usually responded to quickly unless nobody understands the request or you're asking for something from multiple sources. Also, they do take staff time to complete in addition to normal staff duties so there is a cost and it is real. Contrary to what this board thinks, agencies don't have staff sitting around waiting for FOIA requests to come in.

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So they take time and money as I said.

Thanks for confirming.

Pithy answer but you do you. If you indeed worked in that space, you would know better. I have my doubts.

aggiehawg said:

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nai06 said:

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I'm curious to hear how this will stop algae blooms. My pool had a tinted surface and it would still turn green and grow algae if I didn't run the pump or treat the water. How is painting the surface blue going to stop a largely stagnant body of water from developing algae blooms?


If this company has it figured out, kudos to them.

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Duh. There is a filtration system also being replaced and massively upgraded. Water is not stagnant.

Also when we lived in Austin had several friends with lap or volleyball pools with that dark gray or black plaster. They had to put dry ice into them just to use them during summer.

Our pool was very large and deep (over 12 feet) and had a light blue plaster. Stayed cool and pleasant during the summer. The Hubs was in that thing every day he was not on duty.for about 9 months of the year.

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The led screen will be able to tint to lighter color during the day, then be used to display messages or images at night.

In all seriousness, I have seen that rumor. I would think the color shown in most resent photos is not the final color. Would they drive the motorcade on the finished surface? I would not think so but with Trump who knows.

Either way, this is an awesome change. Hopefully they fix the pools at the WWII memorial as when we went April 2025 those were drained.

Quote:

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In all seriousness, I have seen that rumor. I would think the color shown in most resent photos is not the final color.

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Agree. Doubt it will be a Caribbean turquoise.

You act as if pithy is a bad thing.

It's helped me just fine, particularly in securing and delivering on long term contracts for various government agencies.

But if you got it all figured out and know it all, then the consulting gig should be going well.

But as you said, I have my doubts. Now move on from your derail.

FIDO_Ags said:

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Actually, pagerman is correct. Competitive Construction bids are easy to verify if you doubt the process.

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I'm in the industry vato, I know how it works. And doesn't work. And what the little pitfalls are. And how things can be "interpreted" to get the result you want, etc, etc, etc, etc.

I've been on both sides and can tell you that even a "clean" process can be argued against because of a hundred different reasons.

FIDO_Ags said:

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Quote:

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easy my arse. Lawyers and PIA/FOIA requests take time and many times money. Even then you will not get down to the exact evaluation process.

Source: I have done this for nearly 20 years for bids we won and didn't win.

I also have done single source procurements that were not emergency based. As others have mentioned, there are a whole hosts of exemptions for not competitively bidding a project.

Has anyone determined the special treatment and kickback about this award and why the awardee was not qualified and is charging exorbitant rates?

---

I too have been in the procurement side for over 20 years and started a nice consulting gig for it.

You are already starting out wrong. As a FYI, Construction bids don't usually have an evaluation if it was a bid. Now if it was construction RFP associated with a D-B or CMAR, yeah, probably an evaluation.

Won't throw a rock at Trump on this one. If previous bids for the same work didn't achieve the desired outcome, he is well within bounds to ask for a sole source to do the work. The key would be knowing what the scope of the work was in previous bids and whether the desired outcome was achieved.

Also, FOIA requests are usually responded to quickly unless nobody understands the request or you're asking for something from multiple sources. Also, they do take staff time to complete in addition to normal staff duties so there is a cost and it is real. Contrary to what this board thinks, agencies don't have staff sitting around waiting for FOIA requests to come in.

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Incorrect.

CSP's have a qualification based evaluation and proposal, of which the bid is a portion of. I'm working on 3 CSP proposals right now.

D-B, CMAR, Progressive D-B, etc are almost exclusively quals based with negotiations after firm selection to develop a budget and eventually a GMP.

FIDO_Ags said:

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Pithy answer but you do you. If you indeed worked in that space, you would know better. I have my doubts.

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And FOIA requests take time and money and depending on the agency can take a long time to respond to. I'm waiting on information on a FOIA request we made over 3 months ago from a municipality that very likely broke multiple state laws when they went to the 3rd highest bidder on a CSP without even attempting to negotiate with the two firms that had significantly better bids than they did and, at minimum, an equivalent resume and qualifications package.

Our lawyer isn't doing free work for us, and I know for a fact it takes time to deal with him on attempting to get that information.

schmellba99 said:

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FIDO_Ags said:

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Quote:

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easy my arse. Lawyers and PIA/FOIA requests take time and many times money. Even then you will not get down to the exact evaluation process.

Source: I have done this for nearly 20 years for bids we won and didn't win.

I also have done single source procurements that were not emergency based. As others have mentioned, there are a whole hosts of exemptions for not competitively bidding a project.

Has anyone determined the special treatment and kickback about this award and why the awardee was not qualified and is charging exorbitant rates?

---

I too have been in the procurement side for over 20 years and started a nice consulting gig for it.

You are already starting out wrong. As a FYI, Construction bids don't usually have an evaluation if it was a bid. Now if it was construction RFP associated with a D-B or CMAR, yeah, probably an evaluation.

Won't throw a rock at Trump on this one. If previous bids for the same work didn't achieve the desired outcome, he is well within bounds to ask for a sole source to do the work. The key would be knowing what the scope of the work was in previous bids and whether the desired outcome was achieved.

Also, FOIA requests are usually responded to quickly unless nobody understands the request or you're asking for something from multiple sources. Also, they do take staff time to complete in addition to normal staff duties so there is a cost and it is real. Contrary to what this board thinks, agencies don't have staff sitting around waiting for FOIA requests to come in.

---

Incorrect.

CSP's have a qualification based evaluation and proposal, of which the bid is a portion of. I'm working on 3 CSP proposals right now.

D-B, CMAR, Progressive D-B, etc are almost exclusively quals based with negotiations after firm selection to develop a budget and eventually a GMP.

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Quote:

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CSP's have a qualification based evaluation and proposal, of which the bid is a portion of. I'm working on 3 CSP proposals right now

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Huh? CSPs are best value only. The only evaluation if you want to call it that is whether ther bidders were responsive and responsible.

In your example with a municipality taking the third highest bid in a CSP, they most likely did break the law unless the low bids didn't submit all required docs for the bid. If the municipality didn't like the first two bids if they were responsive and responsible, then they should've rebid and played the lottery of higher bids. That municipality deserves to get taken to the cleaners if they violated their own rules. Smells like politics got involved in that bid.

Back to the reflecting pool, all I was saying was that it could be sole-sourced if previous projects didn't correct the problem and if they had similar scopes of work.

BTW, sincere thanks for engaging. I know it's Nerdville but I love talking about this stuff.

nai06 said:

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I'm curious to hear how this will stop algae blooms. My pool had a tinted surface and it would still turn green and grow algae if I didn't run the pump or treat the water. How is painting the surface blue going to stop a largely stagnant body of water from developing algae blooms?


If this company has it figured out, kudos to them.

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Apparenrly not curious enough to read the thread and the extracts from the KO's J&A. The core of this project is a patented piece of technology called the nano bubble infusion system that will saturate the filtered water with oxygen nanobubbles in both O2 and O3 forms to kill algae growth. There's an independent government cost estimate that this nano bubble infuser should cost about $1.8MM of tge peoject cost. If your immediate reaction to this is, "That **** won't work," take it up with NOAA, Ohio State University, and University of Florida.

This isn't simply a commodity public works project for which the cost estimate can be based on analogy or parametric methods. It's going to have to be a CER based on engineering or actual costs. >25% of the contract cost is in this NBI filtration system and the the labor and materials for the cleaning and surface prep of the 33,000 squar meters of the reflecting pool is the other 75%.

And he is using nano bubbles to replenish the ozone! Great Trump!