Usher’s ex-wife calls for Georgia Sidney Lanier’s lake to be drained after son’s death

ATLANTA –

The ex-wife of R&B singer Usher is calling for the draining of Georgia’s largest lake, where her son was fatally wounded 11 years ago.

Fashion designer Tameka Foster has gathered more than 2,500 signatures for her online petition calling on officials to “drain, clean, and restore” Lake Sidney Lanier, to enable improvements. safely and remove hazardous debris and other obstructions.

Kile Glover, her 11-year-old son with Ryan Glover, founder of Bounce TV, died in July 2012 after a personal boat rammed the boy while he was floating in a tube inside a lake. .

“The draining, cleaning and restoration of Lake Lanier is not only necessary but also an opportunity to honor the memory of those who lost their lives and prevent further tragedies,” Foster wrote in the petition. change.org, which she also promotes on her Instagram page.

Located about an hour’s drive northeast of Atlanta, Lake Lanier covers nearly 60 square miles (155 square kilometers) and has waters as deep as 160 feet (49 meters). It is more than just a getaway for millions of boaters, anglers and other annual visitors.

The lake provides drinking water for about 5 million people, according to conservation group Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. And the Buford Dam at the southern end of the lake generates hydroelectric power for the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Army Corps of Engineers built Lake Lanier in the 1950s. The Corps’ district office in Mobile, Alabama, which still operates the lake, did not immediately respond to phone messages and email requests for comment on Monday. Thursday.

According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, heavy traffic on the lake has resulted in hundreds of boat collisions over the past three decades. The agency reported more than 170 boating and drowning deaths between 1994 and 2018.

Foster and Usher married in 2007 and divorced two years later.