By ARIADNE WILL
Sentinel Staff Writer
After meeting once a month for the past nine months, the Sitka Bear Task Force delivered a final report and recommendations to the Assembly on Tuesday.
Task Force member Alix Snelling summarized the recommendations in the report, which call for the city “to potentially replace” the current 64- and 96-gallon trash cans with ones that are bear-resistant, and to distribute informational handouts on how to keep household garbage from attracting bears.
Fortress of the Bear owners made their bears available to test reinforced trash cans, and only one of the three tested was still useable afterward, the report said. The task force recommended that model, manufactured by Kodiak Products, for use in Sitka.
A copy of the handout for customers was included in the report. It provides information on proper trash management and a summary of city and state laws and penalties related to trash disposal and bear activity.
The report recommends the handout be issued with new accounts and included in all customers’ utility bills at the start of bear season each year.
Other recommendations were for the city to issue a citation with the replacement of a trash can damaged by a bear, and to set up “bear trash accounts,” which would allow residents in areas with high bear activity to dispose of their trash at the transfer station. There would be no charge for this, and the service would be in addition to the 200 pounds of free disposal at the transfer station that is allowed for all utility customers.
The report can be viewed in the Jan. 24 Assembly packet, available at sitka.legistar.com by clicking the corresponding “Agenda” hyperlink.
