It is a relief that the Joan Boes' lawsuit against 11 staff and volunteers at the Westbury Library is over. I believe each of us who were personally sued for over two years suffered from the lawsuit. Even though I've read the charges made against us many times, it's still difficult to even make sense of them. And I'll never understand why so many people were sued and why some staff members were selected to be included in the lawsuit and others were not.

It was very difficult to work at the library with the confusion and stress created by the lawsuit and the length of time it dragged on. The fact that so many of us were sued - volunteer board members and staff alike, made it worse. It was especially distressing to most of us that Lawrence Boes, Joan Boes' husband, was on the library board during the lawsuit. (Mr. Boes did excuse himself from executive session when the lawsuit was discussed.)

I still don't understand why Thomas Liotti, Village Justice for Westbury, would choose to represent Joan Boes, now deputy mayor of the Village of Westbury, in a lawsuit against the library, a public entity that serves the community. Perhaps Mr. Liotti would like to explain his rationale in a future letter to the editor?

I believe that the suit came to what Boes would consider a "just" conclusion. I'm sorry that the suit did not make it to a judge or even better, to a jury trial, so 12 citizens could have heard the charges and come to their own conclusion about the merits of the case. That would have been justice.

Cathleen A. Towey

Director, Westbury Memorial Public Library

(On leave for 2005)