One Of Caddo Lake’s Most Hazardous Safety Issues Being Corrected

It's not often that a political figure tags me in their Facebook post, but when my high school friend Todd Hopkins did it, I figured I better check that out.

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See, Todd Hopkins is the District #1 Commissioner for Caddo Parish, and the announcement he tagged me in was an issue of great concern to me and anyone who regularly enjoys the beautiful Caddo Lake.

A major safety hazard on the lake has been a growing concern for boaters over the past couple of years. Due to deteriorated wood, boater neglect, flood conditions, and a number of other variables, several of the channel markers have disappeared or are extremely hard to see in low-light conditions for some time now, which causes the potential for violent, possibly lethal, accidents.

When one of these markers disappears, boaters have to "guess" where the channel might be. Sometimes they guess wrong. And sometimes there is still a good portion of the marker left, but it's covered by water and severe damage to a boat motor occurs when that boater strikes the remaining portion of that marker.

Good news is that beginning in the next couple of weeks, the Caddo Parish Parks and Recreation Department will be replacing channel markers along the Louisiana side of Caddo Lake.

In total, Caddo Parks will replace 93 channel markers, install 179 new reflective bands, and replace 31 missing or damaged pilings.

“The newly installed channel markers help ensure boaters can safely navigate Caddo Lake,” said Caddo Parish Parks and Recreation Director Patrick Wesley. “We are thankful to District 1 Commissioner-Todd Hopkins for assisting the department in identifying the damaged channel markers and for our citizens that notify our department about damaged markers that they come across while boating,” said Wesley.

The channel marker replacement should be complete by December 15th, pending weather conditions.