|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
09/10/2006
Zoo's last howl, last splashA few animals remain; train's fate unknown
A cougar rests in his cage at the Clinch Park Zoo Saturday. The zoo will close its doors permanently Sunday. TRAVERSE CITY — Cheryl Milliron snapped photographs of an empty otter cage. "I'm taking pictures to remember some of the stuff," said Milliron, who made a visit to the zoo Saturday from her Nessen City home with her 9-year-old son, Ethan. "We enjoy coming here, we usually come two or three times during the summer." The city's Clinch Park Zoo opens today for the last time. Admission is free, and the hours are from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The otters and others have been moved away, but the bears, cougars, foxes, gray wolves and some other animals remained Saturday. Vince Luna, of Flint, was at the zoo with his 7-year-old daughter Julia Nichole. "I was walking around and I said to my daughter, 'Where are all the animals?'" Luna said upon learning the zoo was to close for good. He said he likes to bring his daughter to the zoo, just as he was brought here when he was a child. "This is a small zoo, but when I used to come here as a kid, this place was huge to me," Luna said. City commissioners decided in November 2005 to close the zoo, citing a number of reasons including its yearly $380,000 cost to taxpayers. Some residents also complained the zoo was too small and worried about animal welfare. Zoo supporters argued it was well-situated and the animals weren't in harm's way. Since the city commission's decision, the zoo has found homes for almost all of the animals. Remaining animals such as the wolves, foxes and cougars will move to a Minnesota wildlife center at the end of the month, said Bob Cole, the city's public services director. The city spent about $37,000 to build enclosures for the animals in their new homes. The Grand Traverse Zoological Society also pledged funds to help with the relocation. Cole said it will take the city time to remove tools, cages and maintenance equipment from the zoo site. What's next for the spot, the miniature train and zoo buildings is unknown. "Everybody kind of agrees the bird aviary can go away and most of the fencing can go away, but at some point, somebody has to say, 'Here's the plan,'" Cole said. City planner Russ Soyring said the city received $70,000 in grants to hire a consultant to work out design and engineering plans for the bayfront. Applicants for the job were narrowed to three and public interviews will be conducted at 6 p.m. Sept. 14 at the Great Lakes Campus of Northwestern Michigan College. The first planning priority is the zoo site, Soyring said. "We just don't want an empty zoo ... sitting idle down there," he said. The consultant will be hired by the city commission and is expected to begin work in January. Soyring expects the city can clean up the site for next summer, remove some fences and create a park setting. More expensive renovations such as an amphitheater could be considered later. The city zoo has a long, colorful history. In the early 1930s, Con Foster proposed a zoo for the city and solicited donations from businessmen. The zoo was built along the Boardman River where the Farmers Market is now located. The exhibits were to include beaver, muskrat, bear, mink, weasel and — as a newspaper story pointed out — "skunks (deodorized)." An undated postcard drawing depicts "Traverse City's quintuplets" — five raccoons in a line. Records and newspaper clippings at the Grand Traverse Heritage Center indicate the zoo was a big hit, with crowds of people listening to speeches made at its 1931 dedication. The zoo moved to its present location on the north side of Grandview Parkway in the 1950s. Kyle Bowen, 19, of Elk Rapids, was one of a smattering of people at the zoo Saturday afternoon and said he probably will not miss it when it's gone, but he knows others will. "It doesn't bother me much, but I know a lot of families bring their kids here, it's kind of one of the cool things about Traverse City," Bowen said.
|
|
