Helping Out The Man
Monday, February 28th, 2005Buffalo News - Off Main Street
Bill Logal logged onto his computer Sunday night with the intention of paying his city garbage fee.
Unfortunately for Logal, Buffalo’s City Hall Web site was temporarily down, a claim the city challenges.
What city officials won’t contest is that, yes, the city was late paying its Web site registration fee and, yes, Logal paid it on the city’s behalf.
That’s right. Logal, who lives 1,300 miles away in Dallas but owns a house here, took it upon himself to pay the city’s $46.99 renewal fee. “I did ‘em a favor,” he told Off Main last week. “The site was down, down, down, so I paid to get it up so I could pay my user fee.”
At first, city officials didn’t believe it, pooh-poohing any notion that a taxpayer, especially an out-of-town taxpayer, would dig into his own pocket to help City Hall.
In the end, they acknowledged Logal’s gesture and even grumbled a little over the need to reimburse him.
Logal, by the way, is in no rush for the cash.