A woman whose dispute with the Cortez Sanitation District started a widespread controversy says she appreciates the donations that came in for her and her family, but she wants the money to go to others needier than her.

"I appreciate it, but I do not want any donations," she said. "I want to stop this donation thing because it is nothing that I wanted to begin with. Yes, there’s a lot of bills out there, but it’s nobody else’s responsibility."

The woman has had a series of mishaps and family difficulties that resulted in her owing the sanitation district $116.28, an amount slightly more than three quarterly payments of $42 each. Late in January, she received a certified letter from the district stating that, if the amount were not paid in full, her sewer service would be cut off.

She wrote a note on the bottom of the letter stating that her husband had had a disabling stroke and the family, which also includes a teenage son, was having a hard time getting back on track. She sent a $60 personal check and wrote that she would pay the balance in March.

The district accepted the check, even though its policy is to accept only cash, money orders or cashier’s checks on such late payments. On March 15, a worker came out with a backhoe and severed the woman’s sewer line, per district policy. She and her family were without service for several days, and finally she sold her wedding rings to pay the $500 reconnection fee assessed on first-time disconnections. (If a line is cut for lack of payment a second time in five years, the fee is $4,000.)

Her situation came to the public’s attention when two representatives of the Southwest Center for Independence, an advocacy group for the disabled, came before the sanitation-district board April 17 to ask for a refund of the $500 fee. The board rejected the request, saying that there is an appeals procedure available to families in dire straits that is described on the disconnection notice. The woman did not request an appeals hearing, the board noted.

She has stated that, when the district accepted the partial payment, she assumed everything was fine.

After news of the woman’s problem appeared in the Journal and in an April 26 Denver Post column by Diane Carman that labeled Cortez "a town without pity," a number of readers, many in Denver, sent donations to be forwarded to the family.

Maxine Carton of the Southwest Center’s Cortez office opened an account at Citizens State Bank for the family. She said Friday the account has several hundred dollars in it and she intends for it to be used for other individuals facing crises. For more information, contact her at 565-7169.

The sanitation district responded to the criticism in a letter to the Journal printed May 3. In it, district manager Bill Smith and board president Stan Pierce noted that the district’s policy of physically disconnecting service to delinquent customers is allowed under state law.

The letter also indicated that the family had a history of late payments. "We wish we were able to tell you how many times they have been on our disconnection list, but our attorney advises us against it," Pierce and Smith wrote. "Suffice it to say that, through their prior history, they were familiar with the district’s process."

They also wrote that, "Of the individuals that show up on our disconnection list the vast majority are there repeatedly, quarter after quarter. They only pay their bill when threatened with disconnection. We disconnect only six to eight homes a year and most of them have been abandoned and are not occupied."

The woman requested anonymity from the beginning because she works for an employer who had asked her to agree not to engage in political activism criticizing the government, and she interpreted that to mean local government entities as well.

The woman challenged the assertion that she was "continually on the disconnect list," saying she had received no notices to that effect other than the one in January, and that she had made five payments to the district last year and had a regular record of payments. She said she was not familiar with the district’s procedures and noted that it costs $5 to obtain a copy of those policies.

She sent a letter to the district board replying to their letter and considered having it published in the Journal as well, but decided not to, saying she is tired of the publicity and doesn’t think she should be the focus of people’s attention.

"I’ve got a lot of things going on in my life and I just do not want to keep dealing with this," she said. "It keeps me back at that date, continually fighting it, and I’ve got to go forward."

She believes the sanitation district needs to find some way to avoid physical disconnection of sewer pipes so that persons don’t face a $500 fee for a much-smaller delinquent balance. The district is reportedly receptive to working with the city of Cortez to allow water to be shut off for delinquent bills. (See above story.)

The situation with her wedding rings has been "resolved," she said. She thanked the Good Samaritan Center, St. Margaret-Mary Catholic Church, and the Southwest Center for Independence for their help and voiced appreciation to the persons who had been concerned about her family.