| As we met our May
2 deadline for the May 11 issue of the Tico Times, Fuentes Verdes
Ecological Association was preparing to lead a group of local residents
to the Tilaran Municipal Council meeting at 5 pm, bringing petitions
to try to force the mayor and council to act to solve the severe garbage
dump problem that has existed for years.
Sandy Shaw, secretary of Fuentes
Verdes, thus summarized the situation:
"Inspectors from MINAE,
the municipality and other institutions confirm that the dump has
contaminated the Quebrada Cabra and the river Santa Rosa , which
flows downhill towards Cañas. The people who live near the
dump have filed an environmental complaint
with MINAE against the Municipality.
"Several years ago, the
local director of the Health Ministry told us that, with only one
complaint, she was under orders from on high to close the dump -
just as the dump in Arenal was closed by that Ministry several years
ago.
"The Municipality has
been dragging its feet on two fronts: proceeding with a plan for
a sanitary landfill to serve Tilarán, Canas, Abangares and
Bagaces; and supporting local efforts at a canton-wide recycling
program.
"The recycling program already exists, run heroically on the
Tilarán side by Edgar Badilla and in Arenal by Michele Cloutier.
Neither program has an adequate site for the collecting and sorting
of trash. So far, the Municipality of Tilarán has donated
space, which at this moment consists of an open-air unroofed area
next to the municipal bodega. The Municipal engineer is sitting
on the plans for a recycling
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center. The Municipality
has donated not one centavo towards construction. It has been impossible
for MINAE, Health or any other entity to move the Municipality one
step forward, even though private enterprise in the area is already
contributing money to a building fund.
"In the case of the sanitary
landfill, over two years ago the four municipalities acquired land
from a local farmer. Unfortunately, this land borders the La Pacifica
Reserve and the Río Corobicí north of Canas. La Pacífica
has filed a legal action to have this project stopped. Since then,
nobody in any of the municipalities has moved an inch.
"We've had enough of delays and inaction on the part our local
government.
"NOW is the time to tell them to GET MOVING to solve this urgent
problem."
Fuentes Verdes President Ed
Yurica was to present the petitions that had been circulating for
over a week to the mayor and council before the meeting.
Jim and Rene Aoki have now
established their long-running business, Rico Realty, in their new
office building at the Cinco Esquinas intersection. They'll be establishing
an additional enterprise in the building later this year.
Local artist Rebecca Naranjo
is the talented person who is just completing a colorful mural on
a wall at Helen Hollenbeck's house alongside the main road in San
Luis. Rebecca otherwise helps her husband Kurt Lindermuller run
Las Cabinas Caracol about 1 km farther toward Tronadora.
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