Aberdeen split on annexation

“Sometimes I just sit back and say, ?I can?t believe this,? ” says Aberdeen golf course owner Sam Smedley, as he rubs his hand over his face in obvious exasperation.

Smedley is immersed in a battle to maintain a decision of Aberdeen City Council to annex more than 500 acres of property into the city, a battle where his opponents are his neighbors ? people he has claimed to have known for as many as 15 years.