12 - Friday, November 24, 1989 - North Shore News

UNION’S CALL FOR TENDERS REJECTED NVD Council okays recycling contract

NORTH VANCOUVER District Council voted Monday night to accept the recommendations of the Mayor’s Task Force on Recycling and approved a negotiated con- tract with International Paper Ser- vices (EPI) for a_ tri-municipal, multi-material recycling program.

By MARTIN MILLERCHIP Contributing Writer

A delegation from Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 389 had argued forcefully at the Nov. 6 council meeting for an ex~ pansion of municipal curbside col- lection services and asked why the negotiated contract had not been put to public tender.

The task force acknowledged the control and flexibility implicit in municipal service, but balanced this against ‘‘a reliable and experi- enced contractor providing the service with a minimum of delay.””

The task force also reviewed the IPI contract and concluded: “We are convinced that the negotiated price of the contract with IPI is at least as good and probably better than would come from another tender."

Ald. Ernie Crist was the only vote opposed to the recommenda- tions and angrily accused Mayor Marilyn Baker of doing a poor job on the task force.

Said Crist: “What we have here is someone who has come under pressure, was incapable or unwill- ing to do a first class job and has come up with an opportunistic solution, because 1 can assure you that it is going to cost the tax- payers plenty of money and it will not do what it is supposed to.”

Continued Crist: ‘‘l am pro- testing that a mayor’s task force was set up that never even once asked the elected representatives for their opinion as to what direc-

tion to proceed.’”

Ald. Murray Dykeman pointed out that, ‘‘We can opt out if the service is unsatisfactory, and the major attraction is an instant ser- vice to this community.”

Said acting mayor Rick Buchols: “1 don’t think that it has been suggested that this isn’t going to cosi. The markets are thin and dealing through an_ established firm that has contacts and con- tracts we expect that they will have: a market for these products. Our employees are doing a good job, but I don’t see the need to expand a@ government department if the private sector can do the job.’’

Crist suggested that the province should be taking the lead by enac- ting legislation that would compel manufacturers to use a certain percentage of recycled paper, glass, metal and plastic in ail their products.

Said Crist: ‘‘The manufacturers are not obliged to take it so you end up not only paying for the col-

“‘The Last Leaf’

“O'Henry’s “The Last Leaf” is the story

about a trembling sad soul which is situated between two worlds, Life and Death. Indeed, Life is but a little green leaf ona vine (of Fate) against fierce gusts of wind, Autumn wind, and Winter is soon to come.

Johnsy (the main character in the story, who is very ill with pneumonia) is read as a symbolic figure of the Anima Mun. di (world soul). The striking fact is that dohnsy’s sickness is not actually the pneumonia, but her taste for Death. This Rest-wish takes the form of pneumonia. Directly speaking, this poor gid would like to die: “When the last leaf falls, | must go, too.” She sadly muses as she looks out to the blank side of the next brick house, where the ivy leaf is hung. “! want to turn loose my hold on everything, and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves.” Poor girl. dohnsy’'s Death-réverie is identified with gravity. This is dangerous, because she'd

like to fall back to the original state. Sad- ly, no religion in her heart is found.

“But, lo! After the beating rain and fierce gusts of wind that had endured through the livelong night, there yet stood out against the brick wall an ivy leaf. It was the last on the vine.” “... Look out the window, dear, at the last ivy leaf on the wall. Didn't you wonder why it never fluttered or moved when the wind blew? Ah, darling, it’s Behrman’s masterpiece — he painted it there the night that the last leaf fell.”

Now then, we have come to know about the reality of “the last leaf.” It was not the one that had sucked the breast of the fertile earth, but the one that was born from the hidden love of an artist. It seems to us because of that, it was even greener than the real one.

We are not necessarily pessimistic about everything, but it is hard to be an optimist in this particular season of

Kids Only Market - Granville Island THE MICKEY MOUSE STORE

e Music Boxes

lection but you pay someone to ac- tually take it off your hands.”’

Because of flat prices for recycl- ed newsprint, the three municipalities will pay IPI a $35 per tonne subsidy for all newspa- per collected on the North Shore from Aug. f, 1989 to the intended April 2 start-up date for curbside multi-material service. The estimated cost of the subsidy is $110,600, or $33,600 from North Vancouver City, $47,600 from North Vancouver District and $29,400 from West Vancouver.

The annual cost of the contract from April 2, 1990 to March 31, 1994 will be $1,106,000, with North Vancouver City paying $325,000, North Vancouver District paying $474,000 and West Vancouver District paying $297,000.

West Vancouver Council had al- ready approved the I?I contract, subject to similar approval by the District and City of North Van-

couver,

e Waitches

e Clocks

» Large selection

of Disney products

A 20% off Sale J Nov. 21s?-30th Loveable Karacters

Call 688-8744

CLOSING-OUT SALE

Not exacily } as ilustrated.

STARTING

FROM $16 300 “4

CLOSING-OUT SALE

from $4 00 t

Men's, Women’s, Children’s Clothing

Running shoes and much more. Mon., Tues., Wed., Sat. 105: 30 pm. Thurs. & Fri, 104 p. ‘Sunday 11-4 a

EDI 1515 Pemberton Ave, NVan.

CLOSING-OUT SALE

$4 O88

(entrance off iSth)

Standard Features’ Full time 4-wheel drive, automatic available. 60/40 rear seats, 1.8

titre 16-valve engine, 4:

discs, tront & tear mudguards 14” all-season radials, cual

emote RA & L mirrors, intarmittent wipers, full instrumentaticn and much much mor

YOU COULD WIN $25,000. ASK YOUR SALESMAN FOR DETAILS.

Notthshore>

700 MARINE DRIVE

NORTH VANCOUVER

Mon-Thurs 4 3 Ext. Sat

987-4458

ENCORE FOR LYNN JOHNSTON!

The distinguished cartoonist Lynn Johnston, the author of numerous books under the title of “For Better or For Worse”, syndicated in over 450 newspapers, the Ruben Award Winner, (which is the most prestigious award in the world towards cartoonists) will be with us to greet you (of all ages) and to autograph her newest book “The 10th Anniversary Coilec- tion of FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE” (with about 50 pages of her autobiography. Publisher's price: $18.95. During the day of autographing, Saturday, special $14.95). We believe it is her wish to pay a visit to more bookstores and meet more good ieaders if possible, but we have leamed that her schedule is so tight, that hard as she may try, she is only able to make one visit to one bookstore (your district bookstore Readers” Retreat, in LYNN VALLEY CENTRE is the honored one) through the Vancouver, West Vancouver, and North Vancouver area this year. It is our guess that, possibly this bookstore in LYNN VALLEY CENTRE is the bookstore closest to her memories of her early years (about this we can now read in her autobiography.) However, the truth here is that she is not coming because the bookstore is here, but she is coming to the bookstore because her good old neighbors and good readers are around this particular bookstore. So this lucky bookstore is the junction where she is going to greet you, and in retum, she might expect from you very warm hugs. A daughter and sister of the North Shore, LYNN JOHNSTON, carrying with her a huge bundle of smiles to share with us, is coming home. Readers’ Retreat Bookstore in LYNN VALLEY CENTRE cordially invites you (of all ages) to come and meet this outstan- ding cartoonist LYNN JOHNSTON, and if you feel like getting her autograph on her book, then we believe she would do it with a happy heart. After all, if under a certain ideology, i.e. Rolling Stones, the Super-bowl game, Eliot's “CATS”, a sym- phony orchestra on the mountain, Lynn Johnston, etc, people gather, and are involved, like raindrops into an ocean, it would create a kind of fulfilling feeling. In this state, it is the ocean which is flowing into a raindrop, It is the grease, or oil that smoothes our squeaky, dry, daily routine of life. This feeling is, in the winter season, identified with “Christmas”, that resides in our hearts

through the year.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1:00-2:00 P.M.

Readers Retreat Bookstore

Lynn Vailey Centre

1199 Lynn Valley Rd., North Vancouver 985-7616

discontent. After F. Nietzsche assassinated God, we have hardly heard that He has been revived in most of our hearts, neither have we the Philosophy to live with, nor hope in dying: Gaiaism? The Reincarnation theory? If anyone knows that the Human alore has brave- ly escaped from the Triloka (‘the Brutal World’, or “the Animal World”,) after he has shed off the animal skin, which was borrowed from the Gaia, then he would know that a certain aspect of Gaiaism is a false gospel. And anybody who knows that unless one’s Karma (“Cause and Result”) is exhausted, even if one wanted to die, he could not die, he would agree that Reincarationism is a misinterpreted gospel, —~ then, it is not bliss, but a curse. In this connection, it is our conjecture that the World as our collective-physical-body, is in a severe “pneumonic” state, and would like to die; it is destructive, sadistic, and ill-humored.

Through “The Last Leaf, we have

come to a conclusion that it is not always, necessarily, the big, or great that make things better, for as we have found, the one, finy leaf on the wall saved one whole life. How many things are bigger or grater than this?

Anybody who has read Lynn Johnston's “Funny Papers’, would not find it hard to agree that her comic strip takes the position of the “last leaf”, in her part of the World of ours. Her well of im- agination is clear and deep; hardly polluted with downward-wishes, or destructiveness, (sadism, pneumoic nonsense, tastelessness, etc.,} nor has it dried out through a decade of bailing, nor is it frozen. After all, this cartoonist is an Alchemist who is on the right track. She does not cook the things to make a for- mula to cast a spell over us. ie. lice, fleas, rotten teeth, fingernails, fallen hair, lizard’s tonque, dragon's scales, etc. (although these are popular under the category of “hilarious”). Rather, she transmutes the ordinary things, or even the above men-

tioned things like lice, fleas, rotten teeth, etc, into a gold that brightens up our daily lives. Through her pains, the ordinary pains, which are arising in anybody's daily life — because of these kinds of pains, a Life is hardly a heaven — she comforts us in her own way. Her Books are a mir- tor, through which we can see our pain- ful faces of daily life, and we have found through the mirror, that these kinds of daily tragedies are transformed into com- edies. We are smiling. We know that a little healthy smile goes a long way, it takes out the root of sadness, discontent, etc. Yes, through her, we can bring to our hearts a healthy and warm smile which turns the ill-humored world into a home with a lighted hearth, surrounded with warm hearted ones. If we can see a strange little green leaf on the dark grey wall of this winter, then why do we not add it onto our Christmas dream which is & universal dream of Utopia that we would like to bring down to Earth.

Shantih (peace), Shantih. Shantih.