Washington plans up to $49m makeover of historic public golf course

Congress set aside Washington’s East Potomac Park for 'recreation and the pleasure of the people' in 1897. The park includes the East Potomac Golf Links, a historic public golf course that opened in 1919. Now, 129 years after the park was created, the Trump administration has started work linked to a plan to turn the course into a major golf venue.The National Park Service has awarded a nearly $400,000 contract for environmental and historic preservation compliance work at the course, news agency Associate Press reported. The contract was awarded to Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc., a Massachusetts-based civil engineering firm.The contract was revealed during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on Wednesday by Rep Jared Huffman of California, the panel’s top Democrat. Huffman said the National Park Service hired the firm without a public announcement or advance notice to Congress.