Nov 18, 2008 9:09 pm US/Eastern
Dispute Over Blind Woman's 1¢ Bill Is Settled
ATTLEBORO (WBZ) ―
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A penny next to the amount due on Eileen Wilbur's bill.
WBZ
Eileen Wilbur admits to a skirmish or two with the city of Attleboro over the years.
She's lived in her house on Glenn Street since 1959.
Wilbur is 73 years old now and legally blind, but something came in the mail yesterday that made her see red.
"I'm tired of officials walking on me -- and others," she told us.
It was a notice from the city threatening to put a lien on her house and fine her if she didn't pay off what she owed on an old water and sewer bill. How much did the city say she owed? One cent. That's right -- a penny.
"I felt a bit insulted and offended," she said. "It's such a ridiculous amount."
Wilbur didn't think she owed it in the first place. But even if she did -- c'mon, a penny?!
Her daughter -- who retrieves and reads Mom's mail for her -- is quick to point out that the city lost 41 cents on the deal when it put a stamp on the envelope to mail the notice.
"It's just ridiculous," Rose Brederson told us. "It's the penny that broke the camel's back. Enough is enough is enough."
Wilbur and her daughter complained to several friends about it, and even sent an e-mail to City Hall.
And that got the wheels of common sense churning.
Word that Attleboro was after an elderly woman for a penny prompted several folks to drop by City Hall and donate a handful. A former city councilor and a city maintenance man were among those who chipped in. One good Samaritan even wrote a one cent check.
As City Collector Deb Marcoccio displayed those items today, she was also quick to insist that she's not the bad guy in all of this.
"When these notices go out, I don't know whether they owe one cent or a thousand dollars," Marcoccio told us. "I was just doing the job the way the law requires me to."
Her office sends out more than 100,000 similar notices each year. They are spat out and mailed by computer -- without the benefit of human eyes.
Marcoccio acknowledged that jumping through hoops to collect a penny doesn't make much sense from any standpoint, and said she would have intervened -- had she only known. In any event, Eileen Wilbur's outstanding bill is now settled.
"The penny has been paid," Marcoccio said. "It's all taken care of."
Back on Glenn Street, that was welcome news.
"I'm delighted," Eileen Wilbur told us. "This is a blessing from heaven."
She still thinks the city should do more to make sure such silly things don't happen again. That's not in the cards, because Attleboro's city collector's office has only four workers to handle roughly 120,000 delinquent account notices.
As for the strangers who kicked in a penny for her, Wilbur said, "I love people. People are good, they just are."
Wilbur admitted, however, she had no intention of paying that cent on her own.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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