HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — 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 said.

“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.

“It’s not right,” Richardson Green said.

“You knew it was coming then why haven’t you been planning for it,” Kennedy said.

Once the new board takes over, they will then to decide whether to move forward with the assessment or find an alternative.