Atoka businesses renovate Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool

ATOKA, Okla. (KXII) - Two small businesses from Atoka were chosen this spring to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C.

Mid America Coating and Exodus Mobile Cleaning completed the project over 61 days, working 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

“We sandblasted, we washed, we assisted in every inch of the project,” said Wade Powell, owner of Exodus Mobile Cleaning.

Powell said crews had only four days off during the project because of rain.

The reflecting pool’s last major renovation was 14 years ago. This time, crews sealed cracks, deep-cleaned it and coated the bottom dark blue — what President Trump calls “American flag blue.”

“We’re just two years old from Oklahoma to get the chance to do this,” Powell said.

Powell said the project went smoothly despite its scale.

“Obviously, none of us had done a project of that magnitude. So I mean, but at the end of the day, we’ve all done that. It was just bigger,” he said.

President Trump spoke at the project’s completion.

“So this is now open. The water is pouring in as we speak. These are proud people from Oklahoma. They came from Oklahoma, a company from Oklahoma to do it,” Trump said.

Powell returned to Washington on Tuesday and flew over the site.

“I just flew over it and I looked out the window of the plane and I was like, wow, it’s just, it’s different than it looked two weeks ago,” he said.

“It feels great. It really does. Just to know that our name is there, our footprints are on that reflecting pool. And that’s something we can tell our grandkids and bring them here one day and show them,” Powell said.