Cordova council takes up motion to negotiate landfill bear fence

Cordova council members took up a motion to direct the city manager to negotiate with a company for the electrified bear fence the state requires at its landfill, and a resident used the comment period to criticize one design detail: cattle guards.

At a special meeting Wednesday, the council took up a motion directing the city manager to negotiate a construction contract with Cordova Power Sports LLC for a sum not to exceed $870,000, covering the work outlined in the city's construction solicitation for the 17 Mile Landfill electrified bear fence. Council Member Wendy Ranney made the motion and Council Member Dave Zastrow seconded it, with four of the council's seven members present. The available record ends as discussion began and does not show a vote.

The money is already committed. Voters approved a ballot proposition allowing the city to accept a State Revolving Fund loan of up to $870,000, of which $500,000 is forgiven, leaving Cordova responsible for $370,000 plus interest. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation requires the electrified fence at the active waste area of the landfill, a Class II facility at mile 17 of the Copper River Highway. The city has separately sought design services for roughly 2,600 linear feet of electrified fence with two vehicle gates.

The presiding officer told the council that DEC required the fence and that the ballot initiative is why the low-interest, partly forgivable loan is available.

Aaron Sills, of 600 Adams Avenue, said he was not there to talk about bears or fences generally, only cattle guards. "Cattle guards do nothing to stop either black or grizzly bears," he said. "They're made specifically for hoofed animals." Sills said he understood the intent was to keep bears from following vehicles through gates, but called that approach "an absolute waste of time and money."

That is a narrower question than whether the perimeter fence itself works. Clay Koplin, then Cordova's mayor, has previously said electric fences are an effective, best-practice tool for deterring bears at landfills.

Alaska News previously covered Cordova's failed attempt to hire an engineer for the project and council members' accounts of bears climbing onto garbage trucks. Gate design remains to be negotiated.