Improved pathways or mist fans? Shaded walkways or updated restrooms? A playground or a splash pad?
Little Rock Zoo officials soon will choose one project to seek grant funding for this year. They hosted a community meeting Thursday to get input from the public on what visitors wanted to see at the zoo.
Offered as suggestions by zoo staff were interactive signage along improved pathways, shaded viewing areas, a permanent restroom facility, lampposts with mist fans, a new toddler playground and an animal-themed splash pad.
Restrooms are a big need, said the zoo's grant writer, Jj Muehlhausen.
"We have a temporary restroom that was set to be there from three to five years. It's been there more than 15 years and needs a lot of tender love and care," Muehlhausen said.
Twanna Johnson, 44, who lives near the zoo, said her 14-year-old son explained to her why he wasn't interested in going to the Little Rock Zoo.
"He said, 'Well Mama, I just think they need to have rotating exhibits or what not,'" Johnson said. "I've always thought the Little Rock Zoo was nice, but there was just nothing to just kind of draw me in, especially if I have a kid who is just not interested."
Little Rock Zoo Director Mike Blakely said zoo officials are cognizant of the fact that the zoo can't exist if it doesn't draw returning guests, and they know they need new attractions to do that.
Numerous exhibits and updates have been added at the zoo since 2006. They include a new entry plaza, Cafe Africa, an updated elephant exhibit, a handicap-accessible playground for older children, an air-conditioned viewing area at the Cheetah Outpost, shade structures at the Great Apes exhibit and an interactive penguin exhibit.
The zoo plans to apply for an outdoor recreation grant from the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism this year to help fund the project it selects. The zoo has received grants from the department before.
Most recently, it was awarded $125,000 from the grant program for the Arkansas Heritage Farm exhibit set to open next year. It also used $250,000 in parks and tourism grant money to open the Laura P. Nichols Penguin Pointe exhibit in 2011.
Eight citizens attended Thursday's meeting to provide input.
Nicole Winstead, 48, of Little Rock said the most important thing is to make sure visitors are cool.
"You've got kids who are little, and they get tired and cranky, and no mom wants to deal with a kid who needs to be fed who's also hot and crying," said Winstead, who has children ages 20 and 12. "If you have a place to go sit and get cooled off for a second while looking at the exhibit, that's what type of thing that would draw me back to the zoo."
Infrastructure updates must happen before some projects can be explored, Muehlhausen said.
"What you see a lot at other zoos are air-conditioned viewing areas. Our current electrical system, we are at the max," she said, adding that the zoo also has aged galvanized water pipes that need updated.
New interactive signs would allow children and visitors to stretch, climb, learn and jump, one resident pointed out. Education is the zoo's main mission, Muehlhausen said.
The zoo will find out next year whether it has been chosen to receive an outdoor recreation grant. With funding secured, the chosen project could be completed by 2017.
The purpose of the outdoor recreation grants is to "improve the management, planning and overall quality of Arkansas's outdoor recreation resources through advocacy, research, technical assistance, inter-communications and funding assistance," according to the program's website, www.outdoorgrants.com.
Metro on 06/26/2015