149 — Wednesday. March 10. 1999 — Dear Editor: Open letter to North Vancouver District Councillor Ernie Crist: 1 acknowledge receipt and thank vou for your response to my letter of Jan. 10. However, vour response indi- cates that you have apparently misunderstood my comments about the soccer tields as well as the Waterfront Task Force. @ As previously stated, the request of the North Shore Soccer Association is for assis- tance in maintaining or bring- ing existing playing fields up to a safe and playable stan- dard. B Contrary to your state- ment, I do not believe that Trash can decree sends wrong Dear Editor: Our 12] -liwe garbage can was recently tagged by city employees with a fluorescent orange marker informing us that tt is unacceptable for reg- ular municipal collection. We contacted the city to discuss this situation and = were informed of a new engineer- ing department policy that is reducing container size in an eftart to address a problem sith city employees losing time at work as a result of injuries arising from lifting containers that are too heavy. We don’t disagree with the intention of this new rule but _ we take issue with chis direc- POTTED SPRING FLOWERING BULBS (10cm pot) 3 for $5.97 North Shore News entering inte a general agree: ment with the ety and school board re make best use, including joindy developing and maintaining — plaving fields, can be remotely con: sued as voluntary: accep: tance of downloading. For instance, the school district could pay a percentage equal to the number of persons using them for school pro- grams while city and district pay an amount equal to their residents’ non-school purpos- es. M Your second point, chat acquiring wateriront proper: ties will prevent highrises on the waterfront, is simply wrong. tive on a number of fronts. We were told we would now be allawed two 77-litre contain- ers for a combined capacity of 154 fitres and that our old can would be taken away. This amounts to an annual per- houschold increase in capacity of over 1,700 litres of waste. This is clearly the wrong message to be sending at a time when we are being encouraged to “reduce, re- use, and recycle.” We explained that while we don’t often need the full 12)-litre capacity of our can, when we do fill tt to the top it is with uncompacted material and weight is really not a concern. CORMS BULK GLABDIOLA 10 for $2.47 north shore news MAIL BOX District financial watch dog needed Current bridge plan In every case (Fale Cree: Coal Harbour, Tana Quay and West Van when waterfront: Land has been taken away trom private prop erty dor unrestricted public access, the result has been the development. of multi-taniily condas and hightises. This is only ta be expected since the value of the now “watertrontless” properties will drop dramatically, as will the taxes to the municipality. Therefore, unless the “ran: payers at large” are prepared to pay increased taxes to make up the difference, council will be forced to allow the same watertront: highrise develop- ments that you wish to avoid. The supervisor that we were speaking with replied that they could not make exceptions to a rule and in any case this was onginating with Workers’ Compensation Board policy. We fail to see how lifting a greater number of smaller and therefore lower cans with potentially more aggregate weight is going to benefit our municipal: work- ers; when we called the WCB to express our opinion on the subject we were told by the information specialist that there is no WCB policy cither in place or expected regarding the size of refuse containers. The WCB also acknowl MUSHROOM 4 STEER MANURE {20 litre bags) 5 for $7.97 strongly support: your ides of a Citizen's Financial Watch Dog Committee to review all issues, proposed plans o¢ “visions” chat could result ins added costs, tees or ties ta the abready belea sucred district residents. The Waterfront Task Force “vision” will result in a costof $1.5 million, and like- Iv more, cach year for 50 years to buy some 70 lors pro- posed by the Watertrant ‘Fask Force, not to mention the costs of taking over water: trent leases, building water- front trails or scawalls, Richard and Jacqueline Butler North Vancouver message edges that there is not neces- sarily a correlation between container size and weight. A more | appropriate approach might be to impase a oweight: Limit: on weekly housencld garbage aad allow the workers to judge for shenselves when a container has been stuffed to the point that itis unsate to lift, As these households are the true offenders let’s slap the fluores- cent tags on these containers, levy a surcharge for repeat abusers and use the proceeds to fund a more worthwhile community recycling project. Mick and Remona MacKay North Vancouver is ne solution at all Dear Editor: Re: Feb. 28 Ripping Yarns “scary: stories” column by Timothy Renshaw. T get the impression that vou do not enthu- Sasticaly support the acnons of our government with regard to the First Narrows problem. Tacturned to West Vancouver recently after an absence of tive years. F was depressed, though not surprised, to learn that ne solution to the Narrows crossing problem had yet been decided on, despite something like 20 vears of discussions and studies. A titde later out came the present “selution,” a dread- fully expensive, Band-Aid kind of approach, which ultimately just postpones a true solution, T suspect there is a widespread dissatisfaction with our gov- ernment for their refusal to make a responsible decision and resolve the problem ina rational manner. The $78 million to which they are committed for the present folly would be a respectable dawn payment for a new bridge, or even a tunnel. Is there some thought of organizing a protest? And thanks for Keeping me abreast of the bizarre goings-on in the festering parallel universe of polities. James Stewart gossan@ibm.net Mailbox policy LETTERS to the editor must be legible (preferably typewrit- ten), brief and include your name, full address and telephone number, Due to space constraints the North Shore News can- not publish all letters. Published letters may be edited for brevi- ty; clarity, accuracy, legality and taste. Submissions can be faxed to 985-2104 but still must be signed and fully addressed. 183 Pemberton Ave. 985-7195 Put a little spring in your step this weekend.... We're starting to notice a spring in our step as early shipments of trees, shrubs, perennials & flowers arrive at the shop, the sweet fragrance of early blooming sweetbox & daphne fills the air, crocus & daffodils emerge from winter rest & buds begin to swell on the flowering plums & for- sythias. With a great selection of early spring flowers. we're sure we can add a little spring to your step as well! GARDENWORKS" Everything to Make Your Garden Work! CEDAR CREEK SEEDS Buy 3- Get one FREE! 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