Dear South Lake Tahoe City Council,
As a homeowner in South Lake Tahoe, I understand the problem with critters and bears getting into trash all too well. I purchased my home in 2012 and my house did not have a bear box. For the past few years I've dealt with the challenge of keeping critters and bears out of my traditional trash cans. I've stored trash in my shed, woken up early to try to beat the garbagemen to the curb, I've even driven my trash over to South Tahoe Refuse. With all my efforts, there were still those embarassing times when I saw my trash distributed on the ground from bears, raccoons and/or crows getting into my cans. I was disappointed when I looked for a homeowner incentive program and couldn't find one. Bear boxes are expensive and as a young, single homeowner getting one was out of my budget. Until this year, that is. I finally scraped together the funds and invested. Boy am I stoked! I love the convenience of the box and LOVE even more that I'm no longer part of the problem but part of the solution.
I'd really love to see more homeowners & apartment owners take pride in getting their trash off the street and away from our wildlife.
Please make it a priority this year to look into implementing a program that incentivizes installation of Bear Boxes through a rebate program, subsidization program or some sort of incentive program for homeowners. Perhaps a partnership with Tahoe Bear Box, Clean Tahoe, BEAR League, etc. would make this possible.
Thank you for your consideration and passion to keep Tahoe beautiful while keeping our bears safe!
