QUITMAN (KYTX) -- TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline was the hot topic at a town hall meeting Tuesday morning.
Protestors came to let Representative Jeb Hensarling know they're upset over his support of the controversial project -- but he wasn't there. Hensarling's office started trying to spread word of the congressman's schedule change late last week, but some people never got the message.
"He really doesn't care," Teresa Crump said.
Disappointment was written all over Crump's face as she hand-wrote several large protest signs. She's part of a group against the tar sands pipeline.
They came to challenge Hensarling's position on the project, which seeks to pipe those controversial tar sands through East Texas.
"If someone will make the case that our current laws are inadequate for safety issues, then I will be happy to address it," Hensarling told CBS 19 in February 2011.
Pipeline opponents say that case has been made with a total of twelve leaks on the company's existing tar sands line, and they're not buying the company's claim that Keystone will benefit Wood County.
"We don't need the pipeline to come through here to create jobs," Eddie Radillo said. "I think that's a big fallacy."
Instead Radillo is asking for a renewed focus on the Wood County's medical community as a sustainable and permanent source of jobs.
Hensarling's staffers were at the civic center Tuesday to take questions for the congressman. They said he was caught in a mandatory committee meeting on Capitol Hill.
Toward the end, a physical altercation broke out. Neither of the men were connected to the tar sands group.
As the meeting dispersed, several people said they believe Hensarling is now dodging the people he works for.
"I just don't think Jeb wants to hear anything that he doesn't agree with," Patti Radillo said. "He doesn't listen to his constituents."
Others weren't ready to pass judgment.
"I don't know his reasoning and nobody knows the whole picture of everybody's decision behind something," David Munger said.
Representative Hensarling's staff said Quitman's town hall meeting will be rescheduled, but they have not set a date.
The congressman's press secretary told CBS 19 about the change Monday afternoon and we shared that information during our newscasts Monday night.
