After reading the editorial of Oct. 10 about the NorwayParis Solid Waste Board of Directors, we asked a question: How did it ever get printed without checking all of the facts?

We’d like to set the record straight.

In the mid-1980s, one of us, Dana Hanley, was a Sun Journal reporter and recalls being told, “Don’t print a story until you have all of the facts.” It’s clear this did not occur.

Here are the facts: The board was in the news lately regarding their vote to assess an additional fee for dumping furniture at their facility which did not originate from either Norway or Paris. Given the notoriety of this issue, it was unsurprising that a local tire vendor sent a letter to the chairman asking whether his company could drop their used tires at the facility, regardless of their origin, thus saving his company thousands in disposal fees.

First and foremost, there was not a vote by the board to release this letter, as stated in the editorial. The paper must have based its position on second- or third-hand information. Neither of us ever spoke with any member of the editorial board prior to this blatantly false editorial appearing.

As its attorney, Hanley advised the board the letter was a public document, but the board had no affirmative duty to release it until a specific inquiry was made. We never disputed the letter was public. Why the newspaper wants to “trash” the board and claim an illegal vote, when there never was one, is inexplicable.

It was the chairman’s prerogative whether to release this document without being formally requested. The chairman has prided himself in not making unilateral decisions without input from the board. He had every right to call the board members before releasing what was already a “public” document.

Why nobody took time to contact Hanley’s office before printing these disparaging remarks is unfathomable. The newspaper appears to have taken a potshot at him, as a judge in an election year, with fewer than three weeks before voting. One wonders about the newspaper’s true motive, especially given that Hanley is the only judge in Maine history to be accepted into the National Judicial College’s Master of Judicial Studies Program. One quick call would have answered all the questions raised in your editorial.

We trust in the future the Sun Journal will review the protocol they espoused 20 years ago, before muckraking and presenting distorted information. We believe the Norway Paris Solid Waste Board of Directors and its legal counsel deserve a retraction and an apology.

Raymond Garnett, Chairman, Norway Paris Solid Waste, Inc.

Dana C. Hanley, Esq., Attorney for Norway Paris Solid Waste, Inc.

Editor’s Note: NPSW board chairman Ray Garnett told the Sun Journal the board held a telephone vote of its eight members on Oct. 3 to decide whether to release the letter from a local businessman. On Oct. 10, Garnett confirmed all board members were “polled” by phone before he decided to release the letter. The Sun Journal stands by its editorial.