The borough’s bear task force is recommending that the assembly help fund the completion of an electric fence around Community Waste Solutions’ landfill.

CWS manager Craig Franke said the company could use assistance with labor costs and estimated that the total project cost, including materials and labor, would amount to roughly $10,000 to fence off 19 acres.

The 2,400 feet of electric fencing would help curb bear activity at the landfill. Franke said they’d need to not only install the fencing, but also weed block and rock to ensure weeds don’t ground out the fence.

“We need to do it in a way that it doesn’t turn into an ongoing drain on my labor pool spending half their time on a weed whacker,” Franke said. “That gets really expensive. I want to be in a position to do it right so I don’t have a perpetual labor issue moving forward.”

Franke said CWS would be interested in receiving borough assistance for the cost of labor to install the fence, an “off the top of the head” price tag of around $3,000 to $3,500.

“The materials cost aren’t that enormous,” Franke said. “My issue is the labor cost. I’ve got a bunch of guys at work up here but when I start pulling them off our incoming volume of trash then we end up with a disaster of trash blowing around and (attracting) bears.”

The assembly is waiting to hear an official proposal from CWS before deciding on the task force’s recommendations.

The bear task force was created last year to address increased bear activity in town. This spring, police have shot several bears that were approaching and breaking into people’s homes. Bear activity is expected to increase this fall due to poor pink run projections.