Hamburg residents are being advised to bring their pic-i-nic baskets indoors.
Believe it or not, town police say bear sightings are not unheard of in Hamburg - and they have received a photo of a young black bear traveling through the Rogers Road area Thursday night.
Police say seeing a bear is not an emergency in itself. The main thing is to reduce the attraction of food on your property and to keep your distance if you happen to see one. Police are advising residents to reduce garbage on their properties as well.
They say bears tend to avoid human activity, unless conditioned to expect food from us. In the event of an emergency, however, police say residents should not hesitate to call 911 or their non-emergency number, 648-5111.
Some helpful tips from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation on how to manage bears in your neighborhood can be found here.