Former Newsman to Run LV Zoo

"It's like a zoo in there!"

That's what a lot of reporters tell me about their war rooms, where scanners, radios, TVs, computers and ringing phones compete for their attention. Well, I guess that experience must have helped Richard Molchany, a former vice president of operations at The Morning Call. After a six month national search, he's the Lehigh Valley Zoo's new President/CEO.

A lifelong resident of the Lehigh Valley, Molchany replaces Stacey Johnson, who left in June to become President/CEO of The Living Desert Zoo in Palm Desert, California.

Molchany, 51, said the Zoo’s emphasis on “Smart Fun” resonates with him. “The Lehigh Valley Zoo should be as broad an attraction as possible,” he said. “We want to reach all the schools and play an integral part of the education process while being an appealing destination for parents, grandparents and families.”

Molchany is planning a new exhibit for an endangered species - the local reporter, which he'll keep right by the wolves. He plans on breeding a few of them and starting a newspaper.

He's a graduate of Kutztown University and active with many non-profit organizations including the Allentown Boys & Girls Club. An avid sports fan, he has coached and directed a variety of local youth sports programs.

Gregg Marzano, interim board president of the Lehigh Valley Zoological Society, said, “Molchany’s talent and experience will provide us with the expertise and skills we need to continue to grow and support the Zoo well into the future.”

"Happy Faces" Save Lehigh Valley Zoo

It was a packed house at the Lehigh County meeting room last night. Aside from the hundred or so zoo supporters, reporters were everywhere. The Morning Call's Darryl Isherwood, The Express Times' Tony Nauroth, Channel 69's Bo Koltnow and the East Penn Press were all on hand. The only commissioner missing was conservative Glenn Eckhart, who was probably out somewhere eating bison burgers. The fate of the nearly bankrupt Lehigh Valley Zoo was on the line, but by the time the smoke had cleared, Lehigh County Commissioners had breathed new life into the facility.

Commissioners agreed, 7 to 1, to pump $525,000 this year to keep the zoo open, with another $325,000 over each of the next four years. This is the solution that Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham had proposed. He had previously argued it would cost just as much to close the place down. Only Dean Browning was opposed. He preferred giving the zoo $200,000 to meet its obligations now while commissioners and zoo officials work out a business plan, which is already partially developed.

Before things got started, Chairman Percy Dougherty asked the audience, "How many are here to support the zoo?" Nearly every hand went up. He then asked how many oppose the zoo. Not one hand one up. That includes Dougherty's potential Republican rival for commissioner this year, Marc Prinzinger.

Here in Blogistan, we were already firing up the barbeques and preparing for a feast of prairie dogs and penguins. But zoo supporters had a secret weapon last night that quickly destroyed all zoo opposition.

Kids.

Cute little girls got up to save the animals. A ten-year old girl, Ashley, presented Commissioners with a petition signed by her her classmates at McKinley Elementary. She was followed by eleven-year old Amanda Jones, a Shoemaker Elementary student and future veterinarian, who told Commissioners, "I have no animals at home, only a hamster and a fish. At the zoo, I got to watch a lot of happy faces. If someone closes the zoo, it will make me very sad."

Game over. How the hell do you argue with that?

After the kids had made the sale, I thought a bison had entered the room. It was Carol Loomis, whose name pops up everytime the zoo is mentioned. She wasn't really there to oppose public funding, but wanted Commissioners to know about the "suppression of information about what is done to the animals." She's quite the eloquent speaker. According to Loomis, 35 prairie dogs became road kill on Rte. 309 after making an escape, seven kangaroos suddenly became just three and Zorro the Skunk has disappeared. I was waiting for her to reveal the location of a secret lab where animal experiments are conducted.

Sounds pretty bad, doesn't it?

But as I learned from zoo officials after the meeting, Loomis is looney. The prairie dogs caper did occur, but under previous tenants. Zorro did decide to move to a new zoo and who the hell is going to stop a skunk? The kangaroos were split up to different zoos because they are siblings and if they mate, we'll have three headed kangaroos who shit bison burgers. One 'roo did die of cancer.

I was impressed, as always, by the way commissioners treated each other as well as the public. In fact, so were several of the spectators, who complimented this classy set of leaders. So what did they say?

Dougherty: "I am a big supporter of the zoo. ... This is an important part of the quality of life. To close the zoo would be a great travesty."

Browning: "We're putting the cart before the horse. ... I'm not willing to commit to $325,000 in the out years when we are not sure what we are undertaking."

Andy Roman: "I'd like to send out zoo fliers with the tax bills."

Bill Leiner: "The administration has done an extremely good job. We did not give enough oversight to the zoo."

Dan McCarthy: "We're talking about a second last chance here tonight, but I'm not so sure there will be a third last chance."

Gloria Hamm: "I've heard a lot of words. Let's get on with it." [Audience applauds]

David Jones: "If saving the zoo is the end game, then we should put forth the right numbers. Eventually the third strike will come. We're trying to avoid that."

My hero, Sterling Raber, nodded and smiled, but said nothing. He's a wise man.

As the meeting winded down, there was none of the acrimony I see in Northampton County. Conservative Browning joked about providing a copy of The Daily Worker to Democrat Bill Leiner, and he responded "Thank you, comrade."

This is the finest group of municipal legislators in the Lehigh Valley. I feel sorry for Darryl Isherwood, who regularly covers this group. I'll ask Ron Angle to attend their next meeting.

Afternoon Update: This blog is experiencing a Trollvilla attack. Inflammatory, irrelevant and off-topic messages are being posted to evoke outrage and disrupt the usually informative, on-topic discussion. I refuse to enable comment moderation, which I suspect is the goal here. I will delete the comments that appear, and ask that you ignore the childish and petty behavior. I realize that is hard to do, but it seems to work better than anything else.

Dean Browning Wants to Study LV Zoo Finances: Bison Angry

Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham has proposed saving the nearly bankrupt Lehigh Valley Zoo. Closing it will cost the county about $1.8 million over five years, and that's about the same amount of money it would take to keep it open. So why not just keep it open, asks the exec.

Commissioner Dean Browning is confused by the numbers. According to Cunningham, it will cost Lehigh County $200 thousand per year to maintain the elk and oversized bisonburgers grazing near the zoo. But if zookeepers stay, it will only cost them $80 thousand to maintain the herds. Why such a difference?

Another Browning concern is that in 2008, with a county grant of $350 thousand, the zoo still lost $164 thousand. This year, if the county gives the zoo $325 thousand, won't it still finish the year in the red?

A third problem is a $250 thousand line of credit, guaranteed personally by some board members. Is the county going to use taxpayer funds to pay off what really amount to personal obligations?

Fourth, Browning would like to know a little more about the county's own finances. How much will the county have to pay into the pension fund this year? Will the state continue dragging its feet on human services reimbursements?

Finally, the zoo may be performing functions and spending money that could be done more efficiently and inexpensively by the county.

Because of these questions, Browning is suggesting that the county release $100 thousand to the zoo now, which should enable it to meet its payroll until commissioners and county executive can reach a final decision.

LC Exec Don Cunningham:Let's Try to Save Lehigh Valley Zoo

At a news conference today, Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham proposes trying to save the nearly bankrupt Lehigh Valley Zoo. Closing it and forcing all the animals to run for office will cost the county about $1.8 million over five years. Keeping the facility open as a children's zoo that focuses on education, will cost no more. Closing the zoo will save no money, but will deprive the community of a treasured asset. So Cunningham proposes keeping the place open as a children's zoo whose focus is educational. It's a persuasive argument, even to fiscal conservatives. Lehigh County's Board of Commissioners will decide what to do on Wednesday, but Cunningham's proposal makes sense to me.

Here is Cunningham's complete statement.

I have held back from offering my views and position on the impending bankruptcy of the Lehigh Valley Zoo until I had a full compliment of the facts and financials before me.

Toward that end, for more than a month, my administrative staff has worked aggressively with the zoo’s administrative staff, it’s board, county commissioners and reviewed the financial records to get a full and clear picture of the past, present and future situation at our zoo.

The impending bankruptcy of the Zoological Society is a complex situation. And, when faced with complicated decisions that involve the expenditure of public funds, one is best to not take a knee-jerk approach or a passionate approach to decision making.

In the end this is a business decision. It should not be based on who loves animals more or less. In matters regarding the zoo and animals, there is a lot of passion and nostalgia. There is a long and deep history regarding this property and some of these animals on county land that dates back to General Harry Trexler.

This county has long supported this zoo, whether it operated under its current name or its previous name (the Trexler Game Preserve) or whether it operated as a county department or as a subsidized tenant on county property. During the last ten years, under both operating models, county taxpayers have spent an average of about $435,000 a year to run the zoo. It was a little more when the county ran it ($587,000) and a little less on average ($438,000) as a subsidized tenant on county property.

The issue of county financial support is not new. Every county budget for the last two decades has seen financial support for the zoo, some more, some less – but on average $520,000 per year. The issue of closing the zoo is not new either. Five years ago that was debated. And, the Board of Commissioners decided then to develop a new, privatized model that got the county directly out of zoo operations by leasing the facility to the Zoological Society. The idea was a sound one. But, the five year plan that was put in place was based more on wishful thinking than a sound business plan.

Therefore, today the Zoological Society will be bankrupt next month and the facility will close, leaving more than 170 animals on county government property in the hands of us in the dead of winter.

What is new is the reality of paying for the cost to close this facility - the cost to care for the animals until a new home can be found, the cost to find that home and get the animals there, as well as the continued cost of maintaining the herds of bison, elk and Palomino horses, which the county owns. We own a total of about 30 animals.

The cost to do that this year alone is a little more than $1 million. Over a five year period, the total cost of this option is $1.8 million since its will cost us at least $200,000 a year for our herd animals and maintenance. Those animals, today, are cared for by the Zoological Society.

Recognizing the financial cost of the Zoological Society’s bankruptcy – not to mention the loss of a treasured facility, referred to by some as the “jewel of the county’s park system” – we challenged the zoo leadership and board to develop a conservative five year business model based on market reality and a better focus, including what would be needed from the county to support that. We challenged them to squeeze out costs and focus on what works.

There are three guideposts I said were crucial in this plan:

1) That we move away from the model of a regional zoo created five year ago that projects the impression of competing with the Philadelphia Zoo.
2) That we develop a realistic budget with conservative attendance and revenue and cost projections.
3) That the request for county investment be a number that will make a realistic budget work.

I will not support a subsidization number made up by politicians that doesn’t work in a business plan. That’s precisely what was developed five years ago and has led to the current situation.

I also will not support spending county tax dollars on a product that is too small and too ineffective to make it worthy of county support. I don’t think we need a petting zoo with barnyard animals on county property.

And, I will not support anything other than the proper care and transition of the animals on our property in the event that we are not granted the ability to continue a zoo operation.

This county leadership took the right approach when making a financial commitment to minor league baseball. We partnered with the Philadelphia Phillies to land an AAA affiliated team in the star studded International League. We did not invest those tax dollars into an unaffiliated team that played a lesser brand of baseball. My position is that if we aren’t willing to do this right than the correct decision is to do nothing at all.

Toward that end, there is a plan in front of us to restructure this facility into a new Lehigh Valley Children’s Zoo that focuses on its core audience, children 3-10 years old and their parents and grandparents. Nearly half of all visitors to the zoo in recent years have come from school bus trips. Much of the zoo’s programming is focused on education, both in educating kids about biology, animals and the natural world and providing teacher re-education credits in how to teach biology and environmental topics. There are existing solid partnership with school districts, environmental groups and other science and education institutions that can be made even stronger.

Today, we have in front of us a five year plan – based on conservative estimates of 1 percent annual growth and annual cost increases actually tied to inflation. There is no dream like vision of huge numbers of new visitors or magical donor dollars falling from the sky, such as the plan five years ago.

The plan would require a five year commitment of $1,825,000 in county money – just about the same number it will cost us during the same period of time to close the facility.

This week the Administration will send to the Commissioners two ordinances. One ordinance will ask for the $525,000 this year to keep the zoo open and a lease extension calling for $325,000 the next four years for a new Lehigh Valley Children’s Zoo. This figure is $200,000 below the average county spending of $525,000 during the last ten years. The other ordinance, which will be necessary if the first is rejected, will call for an appropriation of $1,014,000 this year to close the facility with recognition that future budgets will need a line item of $200,000 to care for the herds and maintain the facility.

My Administration and I will support the ordinance to invest in a new Lehigh Valley Children’s Zoo. This is the clear choice from a fiscal perspective and a social perspective.

When it is cost effective, communities and governments need to invest in the quality of life assets that make a region a special place to live, to work, to raise a family and to visit. We have understood this for a long time in Lehigh County. That’s why we have this facility, the Trexlertown Velodrome, Coca Cola Park and dozens of other quality of life assets that receive our support.

This plan will not generate the need for a tax increase. In fact, the additional $195,000 in new spending that we would be needed from our 2009 budget can be taken from the surplus we generated from beating our budget projections in 2008.

It’s imperative that we make decisions based on good business analysis but that in the process we keep an eye towards maintaining the soul of our county and our community. In this case, we can do both.

Lehigh Valley Zoo Needs Your Help

The following is a recent email pitch for the financially strapped Lehigh Valley Zoo, which I'll share with you.

As you may have read in the Morning Call last week, Lehigh County is working with the Lehigh Valley Zoo to come up with a plan to improve the Zoo's financial sustainability. Please note that the vast majority of zoos throughout the country receive local or state financial support to survive. It is crucial that the people of Lehigh County (and beyond) show our support of the Lehigh Valley Zoo right now by adding our own support - through financial contributions, Zoo attendance and memberships - to the County's support. The Zoo is a treasure right here in our backyard, it is a wonderful enticement for people and businesses thinking about moving to the Lehigh Valley, and it is a tourist attraction of which we all can be proud as it is not only a fun place to visit but also a leader in conservation and education.

Time is of the essence. Here is how you can help right now:

1) Please send in a donation in whatever amount you are able - as soon as possible - to the Lehigh Valley Zoo, 5150 Game Preserve Road, P.O. Box 519, Schnecksville, PA 18078 or by phone at 610-799-4171. This tax-deductible donation is a very important and needed investment in the Zoo's future, especially now.

2) Please forward this email to your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, and others and encourage them to join in this effort to make a showing to both the Zoo and Lehigh County that we want the Zoo to thrive, that the community supports our local zoo and that we also need the County to continue working together to find a long-term financial plan to ensure the Zoo's success.

3) Given that we are in the midst of the holiday season, don't forget that a Lehigh Valley Zoo membership makes a wonderful gift for those on your list! Please see www.lvzoo.org or call 610-799-4171 to become a member or give the gift of membership - a gift that lasts all year!

4) The penguins are here! Please visit the Zoo soon (It is open 362 days a year, weather permitting!) and see them having a splashing good time! Special penguin events will be featured at the Zoo every weekend in January.