"For these lit buoys, we chose open waters, areas
that have a lot of boating and a lot of nighttime
boating," said Rendell Clark, LMRA boating safety
chairman. "Boating at night has become a lot more
popular over the last few years."
While LMRA has maintained buoys since the 1970s,
the effort to light buoys has come about recently.
"By 2020, we should be getting close to our goal, but
that may be a little ambitious," said John ompson,
LMRA president. "When we started this, we were
around 24 buoys, and we are now into our third year."
Lit buoys are considerably more expensive. A non-
lit buoy runs about $150, but the light and bracket for
a lighted buoy drives the cost up to $450 or more.
Buoys last several years; however, they must be
replaced eventually and sooner if damaged by a
collision or storm. Last year, LMRA replaced 80
buoys. So far, the group has replaced 12 lit buoys.
"ey get hit or will wear out. We never anticipated
replacing those 12 so quickly. at really slowed
us down," Clark said. "It's an ongoing process of
maintaining and replacing."
A team of LMRA volunteers use pontoon boats to
perform buoy placement and maintenance. ey
work on weekdays to avoid water traffic on the
busier weekends.
e cost of the buoy program is paid for by
LMRA members and constitutes 65 percent of the
organization's budget.
For more information about LMRA and its buoy
program, visit lmra.info.
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| 2018 Vol: 4
