[Editor’s note: This letter to the Sullivan West Central School Tax Collector was also sent as a letter to the editor at The River Reporter. The writer owns property in the Town of Tusten.]

I am probably not the only retired taxpayer on a fixed income who must avail himself of the monthly payment plan of the annual school tax bill. Officials in your position should be aware that monthly Social Security checks are credited to the recipients’ bank accounts always on the second Wednesday of the month.

In November of this year the second Wednesday will be November 12. To avoid the hefty penalty of 3%, the taxpayer must make the payment of the third installment payment on or before November 3, 2014. This means to those depending on their Social Security checks as their main source of income that they must somehow manage to cram the two installment payments into the preceding month of October.

I suggest future payment schedules to be more accommodating of the senior population of the county by setting the date for the third installment to the 15th of November. I do not think that this is asking for too much.

Klaus A. Diestel

Saint Augustine, FL