Lynn Boergerhoff and I had the honor of being on Gene Sullivan’s radio show, Where You Live, on AM1280 The Patriot. We’ve been sponsors of his HOA-oriented show for the past year and Gene is a big supporter of our network. He asked us to join him to opine on a burning issue in Georgia, where an HOA was faced with a major repair of a nearby dam that affected the level, if not the very existence, of the lake that served as a major amenity and property value booster for the association. Turns out that a major repair of the dam started bubbling in 2008, and two attempts to get a special assessment done for residents to pay their share resulted in a firing of the entire board, and more recently, a mass resignation of the new board.

The most recent issue stemmed from a special assessment of $29,000 per owned acre that was needed to repair the dam and allow lake levels to return. Needless to say, kicking the can down the proverbial road made everything more expensive, resulting the rather ambitious assessment. While owners with property on the lake seemed to be in favor, it was those owners within the HOA who can’t see or easily access the water that had a particular problem with the assessment. One can only assume there were more of them than those who live beachside. The result was a board that quit in disgust, and a problem that has gone unresolved.

From news reports:

A Henry County homeowners association board was unseated Tuesday night. It happened after homeowners received a $29,000 special assessment from the HOA to fix a dam owned by the community.

Tuesday night packed into a conference room, the homeowners association board for Lake Dow Estates was in the process of being voted out, when they stepped aside.

The board is getting the boot just over a month after homeowners received notice of an assessment: each homeowner owes the HOA $29,000 for each acre they own.

“There’s been a lot of tears. A lot of tears over these past couple of weeks, months, and days. You know people are scared. People are scared that they’re going to lose their homes,” homeowner Asya Richardson Green told Channel 2′s Candace McCowan. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. There’s a lot of people who don’t know how to pay for it,” Kristine Bobo, who has owned a home in the community for 30 years, said.

The assessment is related to Lake Dow and the dam along the lake, which is community property of the Lake Dow Estates neighborhood. Years ago, the state came in and reclassified the dam. That meant either the lake had to be kept at a lower level, or millions had to be spent to improve the dam. The price to fix the dam now costs $8.9 million or $29,000 per acre.

It’s pitted homeowners who live on the lake and want to see it full pool, or full of water, increasing their property value, against those who don’t live on the lake and don’t think they should pay for something they won’t benefit from. “The majority of us think that since they reap the benefits of this lake, they should cover more of the cost,” homeowner Pkale Robinson said.

“They’ve known it’s coming for so long, that if you didn’t like it and didn’t want to fix the lake, why didn’t you sell and get out of this neighborhood,” said homeowner Becky Kennedy.

At Tuesday’s meeting, they voted for a new board to take over. The debate over the lake continues.

You can listen to Gene’s show and our participation in it on AM1280 this Saturday, March 1 at 10 a.m.