Teresa Morris (far right) and Karen Geddie help a customer at Y’s Hometown Foods. The store is working to set local-option liquor election for May. Paul Bryant Photo The owner of Y’s Hometown Foods said he filed for a local-option liquor election petition only after several Brownsboro supporters asked him to do so.

“It’s not just me in this,” Dusty Wise said. “Other people want to see us grow. The issue is the town needs some tax dollars. If someone has a better plan, I’m all for it. I’m not hellbent on putting liquor in Brownsboro.”

Y’s has obtained the required number of signatures to apply for the petition. Once it is filed with Henderson County elections administrator Denise Hernandez and approved, Wise will have 60 days to gather 51 signatures and submit the petition for the May 8 ballot.

“We’re sitting here right now with five empty buildings in town,” Wise said. “I don’t see anybody rushing in here to put in a business. It’d be my wish that there would be a better way to build up this community. We’re being left behind.”

The city’s sales-tax revenue was just over $126,000 in 2009, according to state figures.

If voters choose to make Brownsboro a wet municipality, Y’s would sell beer, wine and liquor until 9 p.m. for off-premises consumption.

It’s a possibility that has angered some in the area, including those who have written the newspaper to express their opposition.

And several Y’s employees said they took exception to what they called attacks on their employer.

“If they can write that about him, they don’t know this man,” one employee, Debbie Grisham, said. “He’s got a heart as big as Texas. Why don’t these people voice their opinions through voting instead of attacking this man?”

Many of the letter writers claim to live outside the Brownsboro city limits.

Another employee, Karen Geddie, said Wise has done nothing to deserve criticism.

“This man has bent over backwards to do everything he could to help this town,” she said. “And there’s not one of us who works here who doesn’t take the time to help others.”

A Brownsboro resident who wished to remain unidentifi ed said Wise has contributed financially and otherwise to the community for years and that any attacks on him are unjustifi ed.

“They need to be talking about what he’s done for Brownsboro and Chandler.”

During an emotional plea for residents to understand what’s at stake, Grisham cried while sharing a story about how Wise helped her during a difficult time in her life. Her coworkers gathered and embraced her.

“They’re attacking all of us,” employee Tanya Morgan said.

Wise, a Brownsboro Independent School District trustee, has owned Y’s for more than 18 years. He’s also a board member for the Brownsboro Economic Development Corporation.

He dismissed concerns about selling alcohol to minors and suggestions that Y’s would become a gathering place for drinkers.

“Anybody who knows me should know me well enough to know I wouldn’t let that happen. The last thing I’d want to do is something that would hurt this town. And I don’t think this will.”

Forty-two counties in the state were classified as “completely wet” last November, according to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Thirty were classfied as “completely dry.” The others, including Smith and Van Zandt counties, are partially wet.

For more on local-option liquor elections, visit sos.state.tx.us. The Texas ABC’s Web site is tabc. state.tx.us.