ZOO not 'dead'

If the Santa Rosa County Tourist Development Council didn’t fund it $125,000, it would close, and that’s what happened – though not permanently.

The closure, according to John Kuder, the new president of the Gulf Coast Zoological Society board of directors, allows the society to focus on its main goal: To find a permanent source of funding to maintain zoo operations.

“It was unfortunate that it was necessary to close the zoo to the public but it had to be done,” Kuder said to the TDC South End Committee Aug. 27.

The decision by Animal Park Inc., to close the zoo to the public enabled two things, Kuder said. It allowed the number one priority – the animals – to be cared for without worry about how payroll was going to be met, and also allows the society to put together a more solid plan going into the future.

“API and the zoo continues on internally, in a viable fashion without access by public,” he said. “And what we’re going to do is we’re going to take this window of opportunity that API and the zoological society has agreed upon...to give (the society’s) entire effort to developing a plan that will provide that source of continuous funding that will be predictable and it will assist in keeping the zoo open.

“And from that point on, fundraisers will be used to build up zoo, like rest of zoos in country.”

The society will have several months to conduct research on various methods of permanent funding sources. Methods considered and disregarded in the past are back on the table, Kuder said.

In the meantime, API will continue to liquidate its animal collection, however, its a collection that could easily be gotten back, Kuder said.

“When you see (the plan) again, you’ll see a highly well polished product, and it will answer every question he said. “So, for those who say, “it’s it too bad the zoo is dead,” just tell them, the death of the zoo has been greatly over exaggerated.”