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| Tilaran
recycler Edgar Badilla displays $1,000 check present by Sandy
Shaw, Ed Yurica, and Ginny Lamont of Fuentes Verdes. |
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Recycling
in the Tilaran canton got a $1,000 boost September 24 when
officers of Fuentes Verdes Ecological Association presented
a check to recycler Edgar Badilla at the new recycling center
provided by the Municipality of Tilaran.
Badilla,
of the non-profit Sustainable Development Association, said
he wants to make the Tilaran recycling center a model for
other municipalities. He also stressed the community's need
for recycling in view of the possible closure of Tilaran's
open-air dump by the Ministry of Health. Badilla's all-but-homeless
recycling operation has been moving over a ton of materials
- glass, plastic, paper, and metal - a month but that's only
a small portion of the solid waste that could be reclaimed.
For
Tilaran, Bagaces, Canas and Abangares, further waste disposal
progress is in the offing, according to the newspaper A. M.
Costa Rica, (Sept. 26), as the four cantons have banded together
to establish a solid waste landfill near Canas, which should
be open soon. Our region is thus relatively progressive. Waste
disposal is in much worse crisis in the booming coastal communities,
according to A.M. Costa Rica, and for them Badilla's program
may indeed be a model and a minor impediment to their impending
disasters.
According
to Fuentes Verdes member Sandy Shaw, who presented the $1,000
check, the new recycling center has a long way to go to be
fully functional, and more funds are urgently needed for walls,
a cement pad, electricity, water and drainage, a separate
entrance and parking area.
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The new
building, so far just a large metal roof on multiple steel legs
covering 200 square meters, is located at the municipal bodega.
Access it by turning in toward the Dos Pinos agricultural store
just a few hundred yards before you reach Tilaran from the lake
road. At Dos Pinos, take a hard right and go another 100 yards or
so.
There's some musical progress in the works, too. Discussions have
started on the plan to have some of Tilaran's wonderful singers
and muscians perform at the Arenal Country Club, where they will
not only have a chance to be heard but to get paid. The performances
at the second monthly Pena Cultural, held September 21 across the
street from the Banco Popular in the Salon de Las Damas Voluntarias
were a revelation. It was amazing to discover what wonderful singers
and musicians reside here in Tilaran as well as to enjoy the very
professional performances of amiable guitar-playing singers Guadalupe
Urbina and Max Goldenberg from Nicoya. Organizers Patricia Brenes
and Juan Carlos Ruiz plan the next evening's entertainment for Oct.
19 at 6 pm in the same location. Making the evening a real joy to
experience was not only the talent but also the friendliness, ease,
and humor of the performers.
Meanwhile,
Arenal Country Club owners Alan and Sandy Carey are thinking of
including live music in the dance evenings they plan to continue
in November, having used a DJ at their first dance night at their
attractive restaurant and dance floor in early September. Local
musicians have been asking Patricia Brenes for other opportunities
to perform, and she sees the Country Club as a great venue for them.
Should the plans prosper, it will not only be wonderful for the
talented musicians but also for entertainment-starved local residents.
Regular
vehicle traffic resumed at the washout on the lake road on September
25 where MOPT has installed a single-lane metal bridge, said to
be a temporary solution to the nearly month-long problem.
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