Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 11, 1990 TAG: 9007110396
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The zoo didn't grow and it didn't shrink. It just sort of existed in suspended animation while plans for the Explore project tossed to and fro: There would be a zoo, no zoo, a re-created Blue Ridge town that never existed, a small zoo, a steam engine and - the latest Explore idea du jour - an environmental conference center.
Meanwhile, the peak of Mill Mountain remained quiet, the zoo's leaders stopped participating in the Explore planning process and were replaced by nationally recognized zoo experts.
Our own zoo remained in the throes of its longtime personality conflict, not quite sure what it wanted to be. Native and longtime Roanokers, some of whom haven't visited the zoo in years, think of it as a children's zoo, a place where the kids can touch a goat and ride the Zoo Choo train. They've missed the serious collection - the Siberian tiger, the monkeys, the red pandas and the rare birds.
All of this is crammed onto three acres with the most spectacular view of any zoo in this country. It is a place where kids can roam without getting lost and a place that adults can tour twice during a 60-minute lunch break.
The enigmatic zoo is remarkably pleasant; remarkably depressing.
One constant through the period of the late '80s has been Beth Poff, who worked her way up from zoo keeper to zoo director. She says she tried her best to accommodate Explore while still maintaining the zoo - no mean feat. But she watched while the valley's media swam like minnows in schools toward crumbs of Explore news.
To get to work, Poff walks past the cages of 2-by-4s and chicken wire and into the trailer that is converted into the zoo's administrative nerve central. Torn screens separate her small office from the outside. Ratty desk chairs salvaged from trash piles are reserved for guests. She, too, hears the barbs about our modest zoo.
"We are," said Poff, "a reflection of what the community wants us to be."
It must be depressing for her, working to hold together the little zoo that is a perfect microcosm of Roanoke - worth a visit, but only a short one.
The zoo operates on a $195,000 annual budget - $5,000 from the city government. The rest comes from you and me, plunking our money down for admission, and from outright contributions.
It's not much to keep afloat 103 animals and six full-time staff members, to host 60,000 visitors, to educate 10,000 schoolkids a year about wildlife, to host 11 Western Virginia school districts, to organize Earth Day celebrations and to still have time to earn the community's respect and admiration.
But Poff, who seems to know her zoo stuff, realized the zoo couldn't long exist frozen by uncertainty about its future. As recently as a month ago, the zoo considered closing its gates forever, but zoo workers refused to disperse the collection of animals for reasons more emotional than technical. The zoo staff has too much time, energy and sweat invested here to just fly the coop.
And so, with a revitalized board of directors, with feisty Rita Loeb as the board president, with a donor willing to put money where the animals are, the zoo has come out roaring.
The zoo is staking its claim to a slab of the coveted high ground on Mill Mountain, a move sure to ripple through the Roanoke Valley's business, political and civic communities as subtle as a tsunami.
Suddenly, there is a 20-year master plan. Suddenly, there will be an aviary, a beaver pond, a temporarily scaled-down tiger habitat.
That's a lot of action at a zoo we thought was dead.
Poff says she is not a political animal, and there's reason to believe her. There's also reason to believe her when she says it is time for the Mill Mountain Zoo to make manure or vacate the lavatory, as the saying goes.
The zoo has emerged with a well-crafted idea of what it could be, and the plan is genius in the way it addresses the Explore project - without the slightest shred of animosity.
If Explore ever exists outside of someone's mind, it can build its North American animal zoo. This zoo will be reserved for Africa and Asia.
If Explore wants an environmental conference center to host the scientists, the Mill Mountain Zoo will continue its environmental education for young people, for city people and for laymen.
All of those years up on that mountain, all of that quietude. That wasn't the sound of people snoozing. That was the sound of thinking.
by CNB