Outhouses only relief at attraction that hosts 33,000 visitors yearly

POCATELLO — A pair of portable outhouses greet visitors to the Pocatello Zoo.

They’re located just inside the front gate and provide the only bathroom facilities at the zoo. That has been the situation since the zoo opened 81 years ago.

    Pocatello Zoological Society President Jack Mooney would like to see a zoo without established restrooms change and the Zoological Society has $116,000 in grants to help it happen. What it needs is about $75,000 from the city of Pocatello in cash and another $75,000 of in-kind donations of equipment and manpower to get it done.

    Today the Pocatello City Council will be reviewing the proposed budget for the 2014 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

    The work session starts at 9 a.m. inside City Hall located at 911 N. Seventh Ave.

    Mooney is hoping a letter presented to the council by the Pocatello Zoological Society’s board of directors will help garner support for improvements to the zoo entrance, including a new Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, compliant public restroom.

    “We can put together an entryway that will really put that zoo on the map,” Mooney explained.

    Architectural plans for a new zoo entrance with restrooms has been completed.

    The Pocatello Railroad Federal Credit Union has offered to contribute $96,190 toward the new entry area and the Ifft Foundation has given the zoo two $10,000 grants for the restroom project.

    According to the Zoological Society, it is hoping to generate another $64,000 from its A Midsummer’s Night for the Zoo and Ice Cream Zoofari events this year and next to help cover the costs of the entryway and restrooms.

    A Midsummer’s Night for the Zoo will be held Saturday from 6 to 9:30 p.m.

    “We’re at a critical juncture with our zoo,” Mooney said. “The basic problem is if we continue to live with Porta-Potties we will lose a lot of potential customers.”

    The Pocatello Zoo currently has about 33,000 visitors per year, according to Zoo Superintendent Scott Ransom.

    This past year a tour bus company failed to renew a two-year contract to make the Pocatello attraction a stop in large part because of the steep incline to the existing entrance and primitive restroom facilities.

    “They loved the zoo, but didn’t appreciate the porta-potties,” Ransom said.

    Ransom has been the zoo’s superintendent for 17 years and the familiar Porta-Potties have always greeted him at the main gate.

    Not having ADA compliant restrooms and easily accessible grades to the park and inside the park have kept Pocatello’s zoo from receiving accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums — a goal the City Council established back in 1994.

    The Pocatello Zoo is unique among the many municipal zoos in the U.S. because it is one of only two that feature Intermountain West wildlife exclusively. Only seven in the country limit their zoo inhabitants to North American wildlife.

    “Every animal in here has a story,” Ransom said.

    It is because most of the animals in the Pocatello Zoo have been rescued, either as orphans or survivors of injury.

    And the zoo has a proven track record of raising outside private money for projects. This year it opened a new $1.3 million Grizzly Bear Exhibit built with donated money. Both Mooney and Ransom were quick to point out the city was very generous with in-kind donations of personnel and equipment to make that project a success.

    “We’re working hard to get each other to put skin in the game,” Ransom said. “It’s hard to get money for restrooms.”

    If the city will not provide a commitment to help this coming fiscal year, Ransom and Mooney said the restroom/entryway project will be put on hold and the grant funding from both the credit union and Ifft Foundation will be lost.

    “It will say we don’t value our customers very much,” Ransom said.

    Mooney said he is worried that inaction by the city will make fundraising even more difficult in the future and a vision for the zoo and its role as a community attraction will be diminished.