Polar Bears and the budget
As part of this story I mentioned that the governor has included three items for the N.C. Zoo in his proposed budget.
The Zoo in Asheboro is an agency under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and as such, it shouldn't be a big shock that the taxpayers would be called upon to invest in the thing. However, this is going to be a tight budget year and there will be people lobbying for holding the line on taxes and funding various programs for people critters.
So here was my question yesterday when Easley's budget advisor Dan Gerlach took the podium: with all the various interests competing for dollars, how do you sell expenditures on polar bears? (More on them in a second.)
"What we're getting at is the fact the zoo...our capitol people, our hard core number crunchers...I think it's safe to say they're mortified by what they saw at the zoo in terms of the amount of capitol construction and rebuilding that needs to happen," Gerlach said. "The place is, I'm not going to say falling apart, but it needs some help."
The zoo has about 500-acres of exhibits and it can take a lot to keep up with basic maintenance, just ask anyone who tried to go gawk at the animals last weekend.
And in fact, up until last year's budget, the state had not put any big expansion or renovation money into the zoo for 14 years. Last year the zoo got a barn to house some antelope and a shed for its grounds keeping tools - albeit a pretty large one. During those 14 years, the zoo was able to expand thanks largely to private donors. And the General Assembly did make with some smaller repair money.
This year, the governor included three items:
- * $2.7 million to expand the polar bear exhibit, with another $1.8 million coming from donations.
- * $2.7 million to build a permanent children's zoo exhibit, with another $1.8 million coming from donations. There is a temporary children's exhibit there now.
- * $600,000 to plan the replacement of the African pavilion, with another $400,000 coming from donations. It would cost more to fix the old building than to rebuild the whole thing.
Here's the deal with the polar bears, according to the zoo spokesman Rod Hackney:
The zoo had two polar bears up until recently when one died from liver problems. The zoo wants to get some more polar bears but there are none available from American zoos. There are polar bears to be had in Canada.
However, Canadian zoos have more stringent standards than American zoos when it comes to loaning or transferring polar bears. To meet those standards, the zoo would have to double the size of the polar bear exhibit and make some other tweaks. Most notably, the zoo would need to convert the polar bear's pool from a freshwater tank to a saltwater tank.
Polar bear fans will want to keep an eye on this item as the budget goes through the legislative wringer. Somehow I doubt the zoo is going to let the bear come down and lobby in person, in which case I'd bet he'd get his new exhibit pdq.
This picture is from the zoo website, where you can learn more about bears.