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The city is not closing the zoo. Residents and guests can still visit the bison, elk and deer at Lords Park from sunrise to sunset every day. Admission is free.
City funding for the zoo has been maintained and in fact was never in danger of being eliminated.
Friends of Lords Park Zoo actually formed last year after the City announced it couldn’t sustain funding required for the summer farm animal program.
Visits vary year to year, but between 12,000 and 25,000 people visit the zoo each year.
Unfortunately the baby farm animals won’t be returning this year. Cost reductions were made last year and there is no capital or operational funding available.
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WBBM STORY
Posted: Tuesday, 20 April 2010 8:25AM
Group works to save Elgin zoo
Lisa Fielding Reporting
(WBBM) -- The Lords Park Zoo has been an attraction in Elgin since 1895. The 108-acre park features lagoons, a pavilion, a trolley stop and resident bison, deer and elk. But, funding for the zoo has dried up.
Friends of Lords Park Zoo spokeswoman Laurie Faith Gibson-Aiello says it needs $20,000 for the bison pen to replace fencing and allow the zoo to get younger herd and continue the lineage.
"The park is unique, it's a good thing. It's a good promotional thing. Why is the city closing it?" asked Gibson-Aiello.
In 2009, the city cut the funding for the Summer Farm animal program and locked the zoo gates.
The bison, elk and deer could still be viewed from the perimeter fencing, but their home was under threat as the 2010 proposed city budget had no funding in it for zoo labor, animal care or livestock feed.
It was at that point that the Friends of Lords Park zoo was formed to save the zoo, the resident animals from eviction and closure and look for creative solutions to fund and repair the basic structures and make the entire zoo programs and partnerships with many City groups sustainable once more.
So far, the Friends group has raised close to $6,000 for the cause. The group is waiting on a letter from the city that will help them approach corporate donors.
Gibson-Aiello hopes to re-open the petting zoo as well. She says some 25,000 people visit the zoo each year.
From Friends of Lords Park Zoo’s Website
(PLEASE NOTE: the gates are locked for the 2009 season, the Bison, Elk and Deer are still in view through the fencing – the Baby Farm Animals will return in 2010).
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