COFFEE CITY (KYTX) -- A small East Texas town is caught up in a big fight. Neighbors in Coffee City tell CBS 19 they're fed up with city leadership.
The whole thing started when Coffee City annexed some land on the north shore of Lake Palestine and inherited some unwilling residents.
"It was for greed is what it was," Lynn Weir said. "John Graham himself has some road frontage 155 property. What they had in mind after we dug into it, was they were going to make a peninsula boardwalk amusement type thing."
Graham is the Mayor Pro Tem of Coffee City. Wier said his truck is plastered with a message against President Obama. Some call it racially inflammatory and inappropriate.
"We have so much racial injected into this city at this time," Betty Savage said. "They won't tell you that with their mouths, but when you're here and you see it, you know it."
The neighbors believe once they got in the way of the city's attempt at re-development, Graham went looking for revenge.
Wier said the security camera video he showed CBS 19 shows a red Chevrolet truck like Graham's speeding down the road, swerving violently into a ditch, and finally, "making obscene gestures to me," he said.
Wier said the roads in his neighborhood haven't been touched since they became the city's responsibility.
"We felt like we were being hamstrung locally," Lauren Savage said.
"It seems like everybody passes the buck," Betty said.
CBS 19 has also obtained a set of e-mails allegedly sent by Graham to another city council woman. They're filled with personal attacks and even a mention of Graham being happy to see the council woman's husband struggle with this health.
He did not deny sending those emails.
We also went to city hall with the allegations. No one there would comment.
