Thumbs down to the person, or persons, on the Biddeford City Council who are allegedly leaking information from closed-door meetings about the progress of Maine Energy Recovery Company negotiations. The updates are given in executive session for a reason ”“ because the information is not ready for public analysis or hypothesizing on proposals that are nowhere near being final. It’s too bad that one or more of the city’s councilors aren’t mature enough to respect the process and are, instead, more interested in spreading the hot gossip throughout town. Their loose lips are hurting the process, since Mayor Alan Casavant is now leery of even updating the council about the negotiations. We hope the snitches who are privy to the Maine Energy information will stop leaking it and be more adult about the effort as it moves forward, to help rebuild trust between city officials and councilors.

Thumbs up to the selectmen in the Town of Kennebunk for revisiting a zoning ordinance that eases parking requirements for businesses in Lower Village. The construction and amendments for The Grand inn on Chase Hill Road have caused much uproar in town over how much parking a large business should be required to have, and where it should be located, particularly when a takeout restaurant is part of the deal and the area is partly residential. By having the planning board take another look at the ordinance, and revise it for voters’ approval in November, controversy such as that which came along with The Grand project might be avoided in the future.

Thumbs up and good luck to all of the Paralympic athletes who took part in the equestrian training at Carlisle Academy in Lyman earlier this month. Ten riders took part in the week-long training camp, the first of its kind in the U.S., to prepare themselves for national and international equestrian competitions. Three of those plan to compete for a spot on the U.S. Paralympic Equestrian team, at selection trials in June, and one of those is our own Mary Jordan from Wells. Being an Olympic athlete requires a lot of training, travel and most of all fundraising, and being a Paralympic athlete also poses its own physical challenges. We wish them all well as they set their sights on the gold.

Thumbs up to Ann Howgate of Lebanon who has taken it upon herself to raise awareness of the dangers of prescription drug abuse. Howgate’s nephew, Matthew Rix, a 2008 Marshwood High School graduate, died of a prescription drug overdose in 2009. Looking for ways to help other families avoid the heartbreak that her family has experienced, Howgate came upon the work former Boston Celtics player Chris Herren, who established Project Purple as part of The Herren Foundation, which assists individuals and families struggling with addiction. Now she is helping to change the stigma and get people talking about this kind of addiction by directing people to www.goprojectpurple.com in the hopes that future lives can be saved.

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Thumbnails is a Monday feature of the Journal Tribune’s opinion pages. If you would like to respond, please write the Reader’s Forum via email at jtcommunity@journaltribune.com or by dropping your letter off at our Biddeford or Sanford offices.