Omaha officially extended its financial responsibility to the Henry Doorly Zoo for more than a decade on May 26th, 2010. On a seven-zero vote, the Omaha City Council approved a new agreement with the zoo. Under that deal, Omaha will give a total of $17.71 million dollars to the zoo by 2020.
The current deal, which was approved in 2008, called for a total of fourteen million dollars in city payments to the zoo. Councilman Franklin Thompson said that a lot of people are asking them why is the Henry Doorly Zoo so special. He said that it is a signature and well-loved destination in Omaha that they must preserve at all costs.
The contract between Omaha and the Zoo, which was publicly announced earlier this month by Mayor Jim Suttle, requires Omaha to pay $1.25 million dollars in 2011 and $1.38 million dollars in the following year. The yearly contribution would improved to $1.55 million dollars, its present level, in 2013. In 2020, Omaha would contribute $2.25 million dollars to the zoo.
The yearly payments could be slashed if the city departments' funding also was slashed because of budget deficits under the agreement. If that happens, the Henry Doorly Zoo payment would decline by the same amount as the city department budgets. Omaha's existing deal will expire by the end of 2010.
The zoo's city funding will come from the keno dollars earned by Omaha. The city's total contribution only represents five percent of the facility's $25 million dollars budget for 2011. Much of the zoo's funding comes from the private sector. But zoo officials said that without the contribution of the city, admission fees might be expensive for families.
According to a study made by researcher from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the zoo's economic effect on the metropolitan area of the Omaha-Council Bluffs last year was estimated at $101.2 million dollars, an improvement of about fifteen million dollars compared in 2008. The figures show an improvement in zoo attendance from $1.39 million visitors in 2008 to 1.56 million visitors in 2009.
John M. Thorpe - [01-08]
