Bears hate them, and trash haulers aren't that fond of them, either

VERNON-Approximately 150 Vernon families armed themselves with the now-familiar yellow animal-resistant garbage cans, which were offered for $39 at sales on Thursday and Saturday in the Vernon municipal building parking lot. Vernon arranged the discounted price with distributors Steve and Michael Orosz, who sell the containers under the name "animal-resistant cans." The people buying the cans say they are worried about the numbers of hungry bears prowling in their neighborhoods. Two pet dogs have perished in encounters with bears, and a bear also has consumed a pond-full of expensive ornamental fish. Bears also have terrified residents by inviting themselves to breakfast or tea. In early June, a Vernon police officer shot and killed a mother black bear that had entered a home in the mid-afternoon with one of her two cubs "We see the bears even in the daytime," said Bernadette Faye of Brooklyn, N.Y., who was purchasing a can. Faye has been spending summers in the Vernon area since childhood. "I saw a bear raid a neighboring garbage can, and then sit down under the deck before a statue of the Blessed Mother, and enjoy a large steak." Other customers had similar stories to recount. "I've had bears try to break into the house several times," said Denise Docherty. "I'm not afraid of the bears and I enjoy seeing them, but having them in the house is a little much." Rusty MacMillan told tales of bears sleeping on the porch, pulling down the apple branches and scratching at the screen door of his Highland Lakes home. "Once when my wife was cooking chocolate brownies, a bear began to go after the irresistible aroma coming through the kitchen exhaust vent," he said. "The bears no longer are afraid of humans, and even when I bang pots and pans, they simply yawn and go about their business." Families who've used them say the cans definitely deter foraging bears and raccoons, but some people fear they also may deter refuse collectors. "The cans are a pain in the butt," said Jim Yurchak, owner of Northern Sanitation Services in Hardyston, "But they do work." Yurchak says the cans sometimes unscrew improperly, and they add 10 to 15 seconds per can for the refuse collectors. "The cans do add to our operational cost, but we live in bear country and our customers have to protect themselves," he said. Officials at Waste Management in Lafayette said that they prefer residents not use the cans. Their workers aren't having problems opening the cans. But they say that families using the cans must first bag their trash. "The cans are heavier than ordinary garbage cans, and our workers won't pick them up," he said. "To collect the refuse, they have to be able to pull out the garbage bags." To ease the refuse collector's task, distributors Steven and Michael Orosz recommend that residents coat the lid threads with silicone spray and use a permanent marker to draw a counterclockwise arrow to indicate how the lid should be unscrewed. Susan Stringfield of B.E.A.R. (Bear Education and Resource Group) says that the cans can be difficult to open or close unless two handles are retrofitted on the lid and a third at ground level to serve as a foot brace. Stringfield's group installed such handles on cans sold earlier this year through Hardyston Township. "I'm sure the garbage collectors have always been under a great deal of pressure to complete their routes in quick fashion, as I see how fast the trucks move through the narrow streets of Highland Lakes," she said. "But homeowners need to be able to secure trash from bears to keep bears from frequenting our neighborhoods.   "Garbage men do not pick up the trash that has been scattered across streets and yards by bears, raccoons, dogs, and crows," she went on. "Homeowners must have a way to secure attractants from animals, especially in towns like Vernon where so many homes are vacation homes and owners place trash out days before actual pick-up and head back to the city for the week." Unlike some other local municipalities, the township has been unable to pick up part of the cost of the cans. Mayor Ira Weiner said that with around 10,000 homes to equip, cost-sharing would wipe out Vernon's Clean Communities dollars, which already are dedicated to other regularly scheduled local clean-up projects. The containers are available from several local suppliers, including B.E.A.R., which sells them under the "Critter Can" name. MacAfee Hardware and Heaven Hill Farm also carry them. Made by EAGLE of West Virginia, the cans are hazardous waste containers modified with a set of two door pulls on the lid and another on the base. The two door pulls help users screw and unscrew the lid. The single handle at the base of the can holds a heavy chain used to secure the can to a tree or post to prevent a bear from rolling it away. In Hardyston, volunteers further modified the cans by drilling an air hole in the bottom to guard against the possibility of a child getting inside and suffocating.