Time was “lost” in search, not “wasted”

In the June 18 edition of the Cook County News- Herald, Rhonda Silence writes about the search for Ty Sitter, the young man who drowned fishing in Swan Lake. Ms. Silence stated that according to Sheriff Falk “time was wasted” transporting equipment and supplies into the area. I would hope “wasted” was not the word used by the sheriff, since it was not a direct quote. Wasted was terribly poor and insensitive choice. If Ms. Silence was referring to the extra time this effort took due to BWCAW restrictions, perhaps something such as time was “lost” would have been better.

I don’t think the Sitter family thought of any time spent recovering Ty as a “waste,” nor would the sheriff or Ms. Silence if they would have been in that situation.

Nancy Wasik
Minneapolis

Editors note: Cook County Sheriff Mark Falk’s comment was that daylight hours were wasted getting equipment and supplies in.