LETTER TO THE EDITOR

To the Editor:

I would like to use your venue to report an incident that occurred on the evening of March 1 that is of great concern to me, personally.

My husband and I oversee a property in our neighborhood that belongs to a man who resides with his very sick wife in Memphis. Since he is unable to predict when he will be able to come to Potts Camp, we check his mail and make sure certain chores are done in a timely manner.

One thing we do for him each month is to make certain that his water bill is paid on time. I went to Potts Camp City Hall the morning of March 1 to do just that. Although the water bills had not arrived in a timely manner again this month, I had planned to be travelling for several days and was not certain I would be in this area during business hours. I feared the cut-off date would pass. Therefore, I wrote a check for both his bill and my own and paid it directly to the clerk at City Hall.

Just after supper, my husband went to this neighbor’s home to check his mail and leave the receipt for the paid water bill.

As he was walking down the road, he began to see what appeared to be unpaid or undelivered water bills in the road. Some were quite muddy. As it was approaching dark, he collected what water bills he could find and brought them back home. There were 11 bills in total, and all were due this month.

We were unsure what to do with them, so we phoned a friend who still resides in Potts Camp in Marshall County. We reside in Benton County, so we have little knowledge of Potts Camp politics.

Mainly, I wanted to alert the mayor or some responsible person that these statements and the personal information on them had been found on the road and in the road ditches here in Benton County.

Several phone calls did not yield any information as to who I should contact, but other citizens were becoming more aware of what had transpired.

My husband remembered that the board usually met on the first Tuesday evening of the month, so he drove back to City Hall. The board was meeting, but my husband was very discourteously told that he had no right to be there. When he tried to convince them that there was a problem with the water bills and that the issue needed immediate attention, he was turned away. Someone did tell him to tear up the bills and throw them away. He did leave two of the bills with the person who denied him access to the meeting.

We figured that our only recourse was, indeed, just to “forget” it. However, it appears that someone we had phoned while seeking information had also become concerned about this mishandling of personal information. In this time of frequent identity thefts, it is wise to become concerned. Even bills retrieved from a road ditch can leave a dishonest hacker to gain access to personal accounts.

A little after 8 p.m., a postal inspector showed up at our front door. I have no idea how he became aware of this problem, but his concern did much to relieve our minds. His investigation revealed that this breach in protection of those 11 (or perhaps more) customers of the Town of Potts Camp Water Department did not result from the careless actions of the post office, but likely were the careless actions from City Hall itself.

Are our elected officials not supposed to listen to the concerns of citizens? There are times when a concern needs to be addressed immediately.

Respectfully,

Cora E. Work