Hogle Zoo Will Take New Bond Proposal to SL County Council

Aug 04, 2008 by Eric Ray

(KCPW News) Hogle Zoo and Democrats on the Salt Lake County Council will present a reworked $65 million bond proposal to the entire council tomorrow. This comes after the council voted three weeks ago to place a proposal on November's ballot that requires the zoo to raise $20 million in private funds before collecting any public money.

"That would have been the largest private capital campaign in the state of Utah for a cultural project. There just has not been a capital campaign of that size," says Councilman Joe Hatch. "There is no history in Utah of being able to do that, and to expect the zoo to be able to do that within two years was just unrealistic."

Hatch calls the $20 million requirement a "poison pill" and says he believes council Republicans approved it expecting the zoo would withdraw the bond request. The new proposal would require the zoo to have only $10 million in private funds in hand before receiving $35 million from the bond. The zoo would then have to raise the other $10 million before receiving the final $30 million in public money.

Hogle Zoo campaign coordinator Maura Carabello says they hope to get the council's Republicans on board.

"We're talking to them all right now. So that's our task in the next day is to go to each council member and have a chance to talk to them about their concerns and if this seems to be a feasible solution for them," says Carabello.

Carabello says the zoo has already raised about $7 million in private funds. Under the proposal, the zoo still faces a two-year deadline to raise the first round of private funds.

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