DAWSON CITY Dawson City's council is one member smaller after last night's regular council meeting.

Coun. Joanne Van Nostrand, now in her third term, resigned in protest after council was forced to rescind the contract it had awarded for garbage collection.

Council was required to give it to another company under the watchful eye of financial supervisor Andre Carrel, who sat in the gallery with about 25 other people.

All councillors present (and Mayor Glen Everitt by speakerphone from Alaska) said the award they were being forced to make was the wrong one.

It was not an award to the lowest bidder, said Councillors Byrun Shandler and Wayne Potoroka. Instead, it was an award to the provider of the lowest level of service when that level had already proved inadequate, the councillors said.

Nevertheless, those three council members voted in favour of the government-appointed Carrel's order on the contract issue, in a motion padded with 'whereas' phrases that made it clear they did so under protest.

Coun. Bill Holmes is in Edmonton with a sick daughter.

Van Nostrand voted against Carrel's instruction. She defended the original contract award to Callison Waste Management and the process by which it was accomplished.

She pointed out council had made its decision within the framework of Carrel's financial plan and with his foreknowledge. Carrel had told them he was not interested in the details of the 'request for proposals' when they issued it in January.

Following the passage of the resolution giving the contract to Ed Repair, Van Nostrand produced her letter of resignation, which she read with a strained voice.

'As mayor and council, we are elected to make decisions for the community in the best interests of the community to the best of our abilities, and I believe that I have done the best I possibly could to meet these commitments,' she said.

'If our decisions are to be overturned by the territorial government at the threat of removal, then what position do we really represent?

'... Being a councillor is a huge commitment which comes with little gratitude. The only reason I put my name forward for this position was that I felt I could make a difference and believed in what I was doing. My satisfaction came from knowing that I was doing the best that I could.

'I feel very little satisfaction and very much frustration in holding the position of an official paper shuffler.

'What has transpired here tonight has made it clear to me that this is our new position. We are being manipulated by cheap personal and political agendas which I find offensive and intolerable.'

Thanking the town staff and supportive citizens, she handed the chairing of the meeting over to Everitt.

His voice shaking with emotion, he thanked her for her years of hard work and adjourned the meeting. He said he will give a lot of hard thought to his future as mayor during the next few days.

Carrel had sat with his head down taking notes during the two-hour meeting and was among the first people out of the council chambers. Kathy Webster, a teacher and council supporter, yelled out, 'Way to go, Andre!' as he left the room.

Said Webster: 'I'm very angry that we lost an excellent council person. I think the territorial government has to wear a lot of the responsibility because they are giving Andre Carrel the power to do this.

'The other thing that I ask out loud is: where is our MLA? He's supposed to be defending Dawson. Where is he?'

Van Nostrand remained at the council table and was surrounded by hugging well-wishers, a number with tears in their eyes, including town office staff.

Everitt said he thought his opposition's hope had been that it would be himself resigning.

'I hope Andre Carrel got the message that the citizens of Dawson are steaming mad,' said former councillor Shirley Pennell. 'They have a right to be mad.

'What's happening has been done totally illegally. The contract that has just been given for waste management is totally, totally illegal. I think that's what quite sickening about the whole thing.

'I think the person that forced the council into doing that knows that that is not legal procedure for awarding it.'

'I'll have to cut a lot of my adjectives,' said ex-councillor John Mitchell. 'I'm totally frustrated and angry.

'I think we all know that there's different camps in Dawson, the Peter (Jenkins, the Klondike MLA) camp and the Glen camp and a whole bunch of the rest of us in the middle. What this has done is draw us all out in support of the fact that we have a municipal council.

'I think some genius in Whitehorse better take a look at the calendar and figure out when the next territorial election is. That's gonna be the answer.

'All this baloney, B.S. or whatever, is gonna come and go, and Dawson'll still be here. It's gonna come back around in spades.'