6 - Wednesday, April 19, 1989 - North Shore News INSIGHTS Taxpayer-voters losers im court’s lease ruling EXACTLY WHO THE WINNERS ARE remains unclear for the moment, but there’s no doubt about the losers in last week’s court verdict on the 320 Taylor Way lease in West Van. They are West Van’s taxpayer- voters. Asked by council for a declaratory judgment on the validity of the 99-year lease granted last May to Newcorp, the developer of the controversial twin towers complex planned for West Van's ‘‘gateway,’' the B.C. Supreme Court has ruled that the contract is indeed valid and legally binding. So the rock and the hard place squeezing Mayor Don Lan- skail and his colleagues haven’t moved. On the one hand is the memory RE tea TS AE MSU BE? Fer= ~ erendum in which a whisker over 50 per cent of voters told council! to scrap the lease and tell Newcorp to get lost. On the other hand is Newcorp’s pending lawsuit against council for failing to meet contrac- tual deadlines. Had last week's MAYOR DON LANSKAIL pricey ceptions. beaches. masses of California. silent wilderness location. worst. Quiet applause LL THOSE who value the dwindling silence in our progressively loud urban environment should offer quiet applause for the continuing bales waged by West Vancouver’s John Beltz. The outspoken chairman of the Right to Quiet Scciety for Soundscape Awareness and Protection has raised his voice against such violators of urban peace as helicopters, garden machinery and radios at local His latest target is the ‘Boom Car’ trend, which has moved north from the mindless and music-befuddled Driven by those with a pathetic need to be noticed, Boom Cars are obnoxious multi-speakered sound systems on wheels that pack a combined boom four times louder than the roar of a jet plane. The liberal-minded will perhaps write off Beltz’s latest call to arms as the ravings of a party-pooping fanatic who would be better suited to @ life in some But the aural pollution of our environment, while seemingly innocuous, is more than just an annoyance. It is a threat to both mental and physical well-being. And more than anything else it is a reflection of the general absence of grace and abundance of rudeness and selfishness in our society. While some noise is unavoidable in urban environ- ments, such frivolous noise as that which is produced by Boom Cars is unnecessary at best and dangerous at So carry on Mr. Beltz, we applaud you...but quietly. court decision declared the lease null and void, the Newcorp suit would, of course, have collapsed. But now it’s still very much alive — leaving the city fathers (and mothers) with only two pricey op- tions. One is to obey the referendum, cancel the lease and take the fi- nancial heat in court. The heat in that case could run as high as the $10 million which Newcorp reportedly would seek in damages. The other option is to tell the voters: ‘‘Sorry, but if you hated the towers that much, you s’ ould hexe se‘ed perinithea Poa ~ such a tiny majority, it will cost you your shirts. So please forget all about the referendum while we make the best deal we can with Newcorp.”” Even the best deal, enabling Newcorp to go right ahead, could still result in legal costs of a quarter of a million upward. That, on top of all the other legal and miscellaneous costs already incur- red over the past 11 months. Each succeeding episode of West Van's ‘‘Fawlty Towers’’ soap opera gets more expensive to watch. tee THEY MAKE IT TICK — "I" being the West Van Seniors Cen- tre, membership now 3,000, and “they” being the Centre's 450 dedicated volunteers. Last Thurs- day evening they were honored at a Volunteer Appreciation Party for the more than 32,000 hours they putin during 1988 — doing everything from leading programs and watering plants to front desk reception and craft sales. They stick with it, too. Centre director Lynda Lyons — aided by Mayor Lanskail, Rec Commission chair- man John Hutton and Rec Direc- tor Frank Kurucz — handed out five-year pins to 31 of them, 10- year pins to another 13 and gifts to 35 who have 11 or more years of volunteer service. akket WRAP-UP: Sunday brought an unexpected extra gift for Juliette Jackson (Friday Focus, April 14) who'd celebrated her 100th birth- day the day before. After the ser- vice at St. Stephen’s Catholic Church, which she still attends, the lively centenarian took some.15,of White Spot on Lonsdale. Came time to pay the bill — but sud- - denly, no way. “‘These coffees are on the house,’’ smiled the manager ... Serving up ‘Whistler Spirit" at tomorrow’s (April 20) lunch meeting of the North Va Chamber of Commerce, 12 noon at the North Shore Winter Club, will be Werner Defilla and Nancy Trieber. The guest speakers, both past presidents of the Whistler Chamber, will plug the summer detights of the year-round playground in our backyard ... And it was a bat-trick week just recently for former Cap College student David Schermbrucker: in seven short days in Toronto he got married, was called to the Bar — along with his wife — and made the front page of the Toronto Star. wae WRIGHT OR WRONG: If you can figure you're going nowhere and do nothing about it, you'll be sure to get there, ir Verne, acer, ( % welcome envelope. Publisher . .... Peter Speck Display Advertising 980-0511 Managing Editor _. Barrett Fisher Classified Advertising 986-6222 Associate Editor Noel Wright Newsroom 985-2131 sociate Editor .... Noel Wrig Distribution 986-1337 Advertising Divector Linda Stewart Bacdébentiemnfile Pelican Subscriptions 986-1337 SUNDAY + WEDNESOAY » FRIDAY Fax 985-3227 North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph IN of the Excise Tax Act. is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every doar on the North Shoie. Second Ciass Mail Registiation Number 3885. Subscriptions Norttr and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Maiting taies available on request. Submissions are bul we cannot accept responsibilty for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures a which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed Photo oudmitted DECADE QF SERVICE...Rec Commission chairinun John Hutton presents 10-year volunteer pin to Elsie Fairfield, one of the 79 long-ser- vice volunteers honored during the Volunteer Appreciation Party at West Van Seniors Centre. 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