9 yr old bill

At this late stage, the CA is most likely a junk debt collector who has purchased really old accounts from another CA who was unable to get results. If the debt is over 7 years old, it should have fallen off your credit report, yes? I'd be wary of this.

Todd,
It depends on the SOL for your state and the state the contract was originally signed.

so what do i need to do to get these people to leave me alone or stop reporting it on my credit rpt

Tood what you need to do is contact each credit reporting agency and file a form that would place a fraud alert on your report. You need to contact each credit reporting agency to get this done.

should i send anything to the CA that sent me the letter?

You can send a debt validation letter via certified mail. There is a template for this letter on this site... http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/letters/

If they fail to send you written validation of the debt, then most definitely check your credit report with all three bureaus to see if the debt is still appearing and if any new info has been posted, or any inquiries from this CA. If so, you can dispute this with the credit bureaus and hopefully get everything to do with this debt removed.