A beloved amenity in the Centennial neighborhood of Peachtree City has been resurrected after the HOA board threatened to take it down.
This last week on Tuesday April 29, residents of Centennial were given approximately 30 minutes notice that one of their favorite neighborhood amenities, a big, beautiful water slide, would be removed by a construction crew.
According to Centennial neighbors Heather Mahon and Jessica Iocovazzo, local residents jumped into action when they found out that the crew had arrived to remove it. Even though they had nearly zero notice, and it was working hours, some 30-40 residents showed up to complain and effectively blocked the construction crew by arguing with HOA President Chuck Eddy, who involved the other HOA board members.
Once the construction crew removed the bolts in the slide and stopped halfway. By lunchtime, the neighbors had gotten enough board members to agree to stop the dismantling. The crew left an unsecured liability in the middle of the Centennial pool. And they left a lot of children really upset.
Within a day, on Wednesday afternoon, kids in the Centennial neighborhood held a Save Our Slide protest at the entrance, with homemade signs and hope. Some fifteen to twenty kids showed up to protest.
Just a week before, Mahon says they were told at an HOA meeting that the slide would not be removed this season.
According to Heather Mahon and Jessica Iacovazzo, the HOA Board had promised that the slide would be up for at least another season, after there were some financial struggles around finding a good insurance provider to cover the public spaces and the townhomes in the area under their umbrella policy.
Mahon explained, “The way that I understand it is the number of companies who will ensure a water slide is declining. And the issue at play is that the town homes in our community are also tied to that insurance policy. And so they are being led to believe that their insurance premiums will go down as a part of not having a water slide. And while that may be true, there’s no data been provided to prove that.”
Iocovazzo found in the minutes of the executive session from that day that quotes to remove the slide had been requested and considered prior to that meeting. Mahon shared that the only input that was considered from residents was a survey that asked some biased questions like, “How important is fiscal responsibility for your HOA Board?” in the midst of asking about whether the slide was important to residents. And the board would not share full survey results with the residents.
Centennial HOA Board President Chuck Eddy was contacted by phone to contribute to this story, but did not reply to our message.
Mahon and Iocovazzo both blame Eddy for this problem. They say that he owns four townhomes in Centennial, and that removing the slide is possibly going to lower insurance rates for townhomes, according to the HOA. They both said his bid to remove the slide is blatant self-interest. “My understanding is he joined the HOA board with a mission to get rid of this water slide to lower his insurance costs on his rentals,” said Iocovazzo.
Iocovazzo said that a construction worker told her that Eddy instructed them to hack the slide in half, so that it couldn’t be rebuilt and resurrected. The construction crew declined to do that.
Iacovazzo also owns both a home and townhome and still wants the amenity, knowing that it may increase her property insurance rate.
The many angry local residents who felt lied to, the kids protesting, and moreconvinced the HOA Board to reverse the removal. The HOA sent out an email on Friday morning saying that they would be reinstalling the slide and that it should be ready by May 10. Now the neighborhood leadership will be having a construction crew return to re-assemble the bolts and make sure the slide is safe for the season.
Will residents continue with their plan to replace the HOA board? Perhaps. Livid doesn’t even come close to describing how upset the residents were at the lack of responsiveness and lack of communication they got from their HOA Board.
The Citizen had several Centennial residents contact us about this story, sending in their photos and hopes that we could help resolve this for them.
Iocovazzo said that Eddy had told the construction crew to hack the slide in half, so it couldn’t be reinstalled. The construction crew told her onsite. “Chuck Eddy told them to take an ax to it.”
Mahon says that the neighbors are considering a petition to remove the entire HOA board. It would require 2/3 of the homeowners in Centennial to approve. And Chuck alone would get four votes, since he has four properties. Mahon estimates that there are about 350 homes in the neighborhood.
“While I understand that it is our largest amenity, it should be discussed before it is done and a replacement of another amenity must be in place. It can’t be a ‘We’ll do something later.’ This is something people come for and we need to have plans in place prior to any kind of decision to make changes like that. And my son’s direct quote was, ‘Well mommy, can you say that at least for one more year.’ So the kids want at least to get to say goodbye. They want to know it’s coming and it not to have been gone without any kind of notice,” said Mahon.
Because of this whole debacle, Mahon and many other residents want to see the HOA Board replaced. “The neighbors are trying to band together and remove the board and put people in place who are able to assess what the neighborhood wants,” she said.
Iocavazzo says that the slide was a big factor in why her family chose to move into Centennial two years ago. They looked at five other houses, but Centennial’s slide was the big draw. Her kids have loved it. She explained, “When we drove into Centennial, I got this overwhelming feeling of this is where I want to raise my children. There were kids out in the streets playing. And the houses, although they’re close together, you could just tell there was a very positive community feel. And then our realtor took us over to the pool and she says, but you haven’t seen the best part of Centennial. And she showed us this water slide coming down, and I said, ‘Oh my goodness. My son, who was three at the time, is going to lose his mind when he sees this.’ So I knew that we were going to move to Centennial over that water slide.”
At this point, the pool opening has been delayed by a week, according to the email from the HOA Board.
“We have a huge neighborhood party on Friday, May 23 in the afternoon for the kids for the last day of school. And Peachtree City Elementary has a sponsored pool party that they have done for the last 20 years in Centennial that all the fifth graders get to come from 11 to one on that Friday.” Iocovazzo hopes the pool will be open and operational along with the water slide.
“We also found out today that somebody came and cut all the power lines to the slide last week. So they knew last week this was all happening even before the meeting,” said Iocovazzo. “We want clear and open communication and transparency. We want to vote and we want people that don’t lie to us. All they’ve done, all they’ve done is lie.”
All in all, it looks like the protests worked to bring back the slide. Neighbors in Centennial are waiting to see if their HOA board is true to their word about repairing it and bringing it back for their kids to enjoy.
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