Construction of Buc-ee's Travel Center Halted Amid Ethics Investigation

Construction of the Buc-ee's Travel Center in Richmond has been ordered to cease as investigators work to determine whether ethical misconduct has taken place.

According to court records obtained by the Observer, an ethics complaint was filed with the Better Business Bureau on Friday against the Texas-based company by a group of concerned Berea citizens called “Let's Grow Berea.”

The complaint alleges corporate administrators of Buc-ee's Travel Center used “unethical tactics” to scout and choose Richmond as the company's next location for its large travel center known for its many gas pumps and Beaver-branded merchandise.

Richmond would be the farthest-north location of Buc-ee's, which the complaint alleges was chosen for nefarious reasons.

According to a copy of the complaint filed, the Berea citizens group alleges Buc-ee's Senior Vice President of New Operations Kathleen Kelly entered into a toxic relationship with Berea small business owner Joe Fox in order to gain insider information into the economy and layout of the Madison County area before choosing Richmond as the company's next location.

Fox, who agreed to an exclusive interview with the Observer, said the Berea citizens group is mistaken and the complaint is “without merit.”

Fox told Observer reporters that he is, in fact, deeply in love with Kelly, and the Senior Vice President of New Operations feels the same.

“She's the most beautiful specimen in all of Texas,” Fox said deliriously. “God bless the Lone Star State for making a woman like that.”

Fox said he met Kelly on Tinder in late 2019, after swiping right on her photo.

The small business owner said the two immediately connected over their shared love of BBQ, jerky, and interest in local business practices, tax codes, and commercial real estate.

“We talked for hours and it was just so wonderful. She's just so smart. I told my friend, I said, ‘Kevin, this is possibly the sexiest creature I've ever been in contact with, and if she turns out to be as good looking as a mailbox… I would be crazy enough to turn my life upside down and marry her,'” Fox recalled.

However, Fox did admit to the Observer that Kelly never mentioned who she worked for during the early days of their courtship.

“That's what is so great about her. She wanted to know about me and really get to know me. She was interested in me and Berea and what the small business community and Chamber of Commerce are trying to do down here,” Fox said with a smile.

However, email messages included in the BBB complaint between Kelly and an associate by the name of George Pappas paint a different story.

“Between you and me, and as we say down here in Texas, that guy is dumber than a box of rocks,” Kelly wrote Pappas in an email whose subject line read “Beaver takes down Berea.”

In another email to Pappas, dated July 2020, Kelly writes: “I have him right where I want him. He actually thinks I'm going to marry him. Isn't that cute?”

A third email to Pappas, dated April 6, 2021, read: “Bless his little heart, he thinks I brought Buc-ee's to Madison County so I could be near him. What an idiot! That little town is history.”

The Observer also discovered a Facebook group dedicated to female business professionals called “Bad Beavers R Us” where Kelly wrote a post about her work practices.

“The truth is, I use my Tinder account to find these low life small business owners in rural communities so I can go in and suck the life out of their sad little mom and pop operations, as payback for thinking they have a chance with me. I've got one guy to spill the beans on everything. I can't wait to see all the ‘Going out of business' signs in the dry, old dusty town,” Kelly wrote.

When a comment asked her how she hooks poor, unsuspecting men into her caustic web, Kelly wrote:

“Kinda similar to the way a beaver destroys a poplar tree, and this beaver is gonna eat his tree for breakfast.”

— KATHLEEN KELLY, SVP OF NEW OPERATIONS, BUC-EE'S

Kelly declined to be interviewed by the Observer.

Fox noted he had applied to be a cashier at the Buc-ee's during their hiring event.

“What's better than making a decent wage and being close to the woman you love?” he told Observer staff while wearing a Buc-ee's branded hat, t-shirt, pajama pants, slippers, and socks, and eating a brisket sandwich.