Here’s a roundup of arrests, pool abandonments and bankruptcies reported in Georgia, Kentucky and South Carolina:
⚫ A Georgia pool contractor was arrested. John H. Barrow of Precision Pools and Spas, near Athens, is under investigation by the state’s Consumer Protection Division due to repeated complaints. Local CBS 46 so far has tallied approximately $125,000 in payments that local homeowners claim making to him for incomplete projects. His arrest came after he failed to appear for a court hearing.
⚫ In South Carolina, the local press is asking why one county would issue building permits to a Myrtle Beach pool builder who was denied a license. While reporting on a he said/she said argument between a homeowner and Premier Pools (not of the national franchise), the local NBC affiliate WMBF found the company had multiple complaints over the last few years and was denied a license in 2015. Despite this, the media outlet said, the company was granted four pool permits in Horry County since 2017.
⚫ The Kentucky press reported on a landscape firm that left homeowners and its pool contractor high and dry when it filed for bankruptcy. According to the Lexington Herald Leader, Nature’s Expressions, located about a dozen miles from Lexington in Nicholasville, has unsettled debts with 200 to 999 creditors. Countless homeowners are left with unfinished yards, said the media outlet, which quoted a family who paid $90,000 for a vinyl-liner pool and now has an excavation with metal panels. Unpaid creditors include local pool/spa subcontractor C&S Pools, as its co-owner told the Herald Leader. Ryan Cook also said the landscape firm left him in a position to inform some of the homeowners.
