Bears have had a busy summer in Palmer Lake, and so have the emails about them. The subject is not on tonight’s Board of Trustees agenda, but it is likely to come up anyway during public comment, carrying a state senator’s written testimony and meeting a staff memo that asks the board to let a broader review finish first.
The Town of Palmer Lake‘s June notice about bear activity is illustrated with a photograph of a sow and her cub strolling down a dirt road past a trash cart. As summaries of the season go, it was hard to improve on. Colorado Parks and Wildlife logged 6,129 reports of bear sightings and conflicts statewide between Jan. 1 and Aug. 13, nearly double the same stretch of 2025, and says drought has sent bears into town looking for the calories the hills did not provide.
Trustees have taken up the subject twice since August. The Aug. 27 discussion ended without a vote after Town Attorney James Godbold advised that the existing code already lets the town warn and cite anyone who fails to secure trash after being told to, and that rules aimed only at short-term rentals would face an equal-protection test.
Who has been asking
Trustee Atis Jurka asked in writing for bears and trash to be on tonight’s agenda. On Sept. 17 he wrote to Town Administrator Patrick Davidson and Town Clerk Erica Romero listing residents’ questions, from trash sheds in rights-of-way to whether police have enough in the code to enforce, and asked that “recommended answers/solutions be provided” at the next meeting. On Sept. 21 he wrote again, copying Mayor Dennis Stern. He received no reply, he told The Monument Independent. Jurka is running for mayor in November; Stern is running for trustee.
The loudest voice has been a resident’s. Gene Kalesti, a chef and former member of the town’s parks commission, has spent the past month writing to trustees, town staff, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Senate sponsor of the new state law, and has drafted a sample ordinance of his own. It would require bear-resistant containers or enclosures for trash stored outdoors and keep unsecured trash off the curb until the morning of collection. The draft is marked “sample for discussion” and has not been introduced.
What the town says
The rules for getting onto the agenda are on the town’s website: the agenda “is determined by the Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Town Attorney, and Town Administrator a minimum of one week prior to a regular scheduled meeting.” Jurka’s first request arrived exactly a week out.
The town’s answer arrived in a revised meeting packet posted Wednesday afternoon. In a three-page memo, Davidson writes that the issue “has again been elevated as an urgent matter through communications from a citizen and a Board member(s),” and asks the board to let staff and legal counsel finish a comprehensive review covering existing code, the new state law, short-term rentals, trash practices, education and enforcement. “The goal is not to delay action,” he writes. “The goal is to ensure that any action ultimately taken by the Town is within the Town’s authority, consistently applied, operationally workable, and legally supportable.” The memo gives no date for that review. The same revision removed a separate item, a board governance handbook, from tonight’s agenda.
Stern, Beltran and Davidson were each asked by email on Wednesday morning who decides the agenda and whether trustees’ requests had been received. None had responded by Thursday afternoon.
A decision from 2025
The trash question has a history at Town Hall. In early 2025 three haulers bid to become the town’s single residential provider. Apex Infinite offered a bear-proof bin for $10 a month on top of $25 service; Republic Services quoted $35.50 a month with a bear-proof cart. Waste Connections bid $17 a month for a standard 96-gallon cart, and the town’s summary of its bid lists no bear-resistant option or price. The company does offer bear-resistant carts elsewhere: its Colorado Springs service page says it provides them to customers in that city’s bear ordinance area west of I-25. Whether it offers them to Palmer Lake customers, and at what cost, could not be confirmed by publication; a message left with the company’s customer service line on Thursday had not been returned. On May 22, 2025, the board voted 7–0 to name Waste Connections the town’s “preferred provider” for two years; Stern and Jurka both voted yes. The designation is not exclusive, and residents may use other haulers.
The state law, briefly
HB26-1342, in force since Aug. 12, makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly leave food or edible waste where a bear is reasonably likely to find it, drops the mandatory first-offense warning and raises the top fine to $5,000. It does not tell anyone what kind of trash can to buy. Sen. Janice Marchman, its Senate prime sponsor, says so in written testimony she has asked to be entered into tonight’s minutes: the law “does not require bear-resistant containers or enclosures. That is a local decision.” In answers to The Monument Independent, her office called container rules “a policy question for the Palmer Lake Board of Trustees.” CPW offered $1 million this year through its Human-Bear Conflict Reduction Community Grant Program, in grants of $50,000 to $500,000; the next round is expected to open in February 2027.
What to watch tonight
The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at Town Hall, with a budget workshop at 4. Public comment on items not on the agenda comes after the business items, at three minutes a speaker. Kalesti has said he intends to submit Marchman’s testimony for the record. Whether a CPW officer speaks is less clear: Kalesti says he invited the district wildlife officer, who told him he would attend, while Davidson’s memo says CPW “was unable to attend” a meeting at which the matter was scheduled, without saying which one.
One item that is on the agenda touches bears directly. The fee schedule up for adoption, marked “Updated May 22, 2025,” lists citation amounts of $100, $500 and $1,000 for the town’s wildlife-attractant rule; the code itself sets $50, $75 and $100. The packet does not explain the difference.
The bears, for their part, have not requested time.
Sources & further reading
The Independent’s own coverage: Palmer Lake Board of Trustees, August 13, 2026 · Palmer Lake’s November Ballot Is Set
Town record: Revised Sept. 24, 2026 agenda and packet (administrator’s bear memo; Resolution 34-2026 fee schedule) · Town of Palmer Lake FAQ on agenda requests · Town news posts, June 25 and Aug. 26, 2026 · Aug. 27, 2026 meeting recording · Resolution 43-2025, the May 8, 2025 single-hauler staff memo and May 22, 2025 minutes · Palmer Lake Municipal Code §§ 7.16.010–.020
State: HB26-1342, enacted text · CPW news releases, Feb. 27 and Aug. 13, 2026 · CPW Human-Bear Conflict Reduction Grants page · Written testimony of Sen. Janice Marchman and answers from her office, Sept. 23, 2026
Haulers: Waste Connections, Colorado Springs service FAQ
Correspondence: Trustee Atis Jurka, email to The Monument Independent, Sept. 23, with his Sept. 17 and Sept. 21 requests · Gene Kalesti, sample ordinance, supplied Sept. 23
