MURCHISON (KYTX) -- Murchison could be joining the list of newly "wet" East Texas cities. People there are looking to legalize closed container sales of beer, wine and liquor.
"I've lived in this area my whole life and I never thought Athens would go wet," Murchison voter Paula Massey said. "But it did."
As the dominoes start to fall amongst the remaining dry East Texas towns, Massey has no problem with local liquor sales.
"I don't believe it turns a person into an alcoholic," she said. "If you want it you're going to go get it. It doesn't matter where it's at."
She's at odds with opponents of alcohol in Murchison, most notably the mayor.
"I would say it would be a slim to none chance that it would pass and we would not have problems," Mayor Mike Hill said.
Hill believes Malakoff's decision to go wet raised crime rates there, and worries he'll be dealing with the same thing in Murchison.
"Whoever wins this, the other one is going to be mad," he said, adding that a "yes" vote will force him to start a police department from scratch. "Where the hell am I going to get $135,000?"
Murchison is one of the few cities in Texas with no property tax and the mayor says he wants to keep it that way. He also says raising $135,000 is not easy and property taxes are probably the only answer.
"Either way, if it passes, we had our day in court," Hill said. "Now we have to live with the consequences."
Proponents of going wet say it could put as much as $60,000 dollars back into the city's pocket.
"You have to make right choices and good choices and good decisions," Massey said. "I feel like if it could bring some revenues into towns, you know, we're all suffering."
