Dear Editor:

I want to congratulate Ryan Leighton for writing, and the Register for front-paging, possibly the best job of reporting any issue in the area in the two decades I've been reading it.

It's obviously not easy to research facts when major participants and organizations are committed to silence.

As a former reporter who had to work on stories behind the Iron Curtain, I know how difficult it is to get anyone on the record about anything that might be controversial.

But this time the Register “got it first, and first got it right” as the United Press mantra used to be.

Which makes it seem especially out of Never Never Land to read the statement from the Y's board of directors that this was a private personnel matter and therefore could not be explained or discussed ... and, having thus refused to speak, claimed the article did disservice to the Y. On the contrary, the board did the Y (and the community) a disservice by refusing to answer any questions (not only from the Register) and dissembling under the excuse of a “private personnel matter.”

This was the same reason we were not informed of St. Andrews dismantling or the Boothbay board's attempt to reconfigure the town center and the process of approving expenditures. It's impossible to get a complete story if one side stonewalls, and given the code of silence at the Y, that article was excellent.

Rhoda Weyr
Boothbay