By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The city public works department is hoping a new device is the answer to keeping bears out of the 350-gallon garbage bin at the Kimsham athletic fields.
“So far, so good,” Mike Colliver, supervisor of the city buildings, grounds and parks divisions, said in reporting on the effectiveness of the new bear- deterrent trash rings installed last week on the Kimsham trash bin.
The bear problem was particularly bad there because the several acres of softball and soccer fields are right up against the forest, and no one is around for long periods to deter curious bears attracted by the garbage bin.
“We’re trying to be proactive and we’re trying to keep the bears from getting habituated,” Colliver said.
On June 23, and again on July 8, bears turned over the 350-gallon Kimsham container. The concession stands have been closed due to COVID precautions, but the bin appeared to have been relatively full, with garbage strewn around on both days, Colliver said.
He had heard about the bear-proof rings being used at the Alaska Raptor Center and the Alaska Public Safety Academy, which are similarly located next to forest land, and thought they might be worth a try for the city’s problem.
The aluminum rings at the academy and the raptor center were designed by Ben Crew of Crew Enterprises, who has since moved away. But Jeremy Serka, who helped fabricate those devices and now runs his own fabrication business, Sitka Custom Marine, was available to make one for the city to use at Kimsham. More orders are on the way.
Jeremy Serka pushes on a 300-gallon dumpster near the Kimsham ballfields this morning. Serka has been busy manufacturing broad bases for the city-owned trash containers in order to make the dumpsters more difficult for bears to tip over. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
The hoops are designed to fit the large “commercial size” containers used by the city’s solid waste contractor. The rings are six feet across at the base and 44 inches across at the second hoop. The unit is 22 inches high, and made of one-and-a-half-inch aluminum pipe.
Colliver said the next one will go to the Mills Street ballfield. Bears have not yet hit that location, but he said he’s trying to stay one step ahead of them in the interest of public safety.
“There’s been a lot of challenges with bears in the subdivision up there,” Colliver said.
Serka says the units cost about $750 each, which he noted is cheaper than the other deterrence strategy: pouring a slab of concrete, and bolting the bin down.
Colliver said the city has ordered a few more of the hula hoops to see how they work out, both as a bear deterrent and with respect to the operations of the city’s solid waste contractor, Alaska Waste Management.
Serka said he thinks the devices will be a good fit for the city’s needs.
A resident of Johnson Street, Serka is no stranger to bears and garbage problems. He wasn’t happy to find himself on the receiving end of a citation Friday after bears got into one of his neighbors’ trash cans. The ticket is on its way to being resolved. It put him in a bad mood at the time, Serka said, but today he had to chuckle at the irony of the situation.
