Zoo planners likely to be OK'd for conference

The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors Tuesday is expected to approve sending planners from the Micke Grove Zoo to attend a conference in Florida where they will hope to get the zoo nationally re-accredited; and to approve a subdivision in the town of Clements, east of Lockeford.

Micke Grove is up for re-accreditation by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association at the end of March. If the zoo is not accredited, it would stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants and the ability to house some endangered species, zoo Director Ken Nieland said.

"The accreditation process is the standard by which the top zoos in the country are identified," he said. "It's a standard of excellence."

The zoo was scheduled to be re-accredited last year, but an AZA committee visited Micke Grove and recommended that the re-accreditation be postponed until the county made several changes.

The main concern the committee had, Facilities Management Director Craig Ogata said, were the zoo's funding problems created because the county is under-funded. The report said the county should transfer operations of the zoo to a non-governmental agency.

Ogata said county officials have been meeting with the Micke Grove Zoological Society, which raises money for the zoo, about possibly handing over the zoo.

The committee report also asked zoo staff to at least one zookeeper or veterinarian and to modernize its veterinary clinic — which the county has recently approved; and to improve the east end of the zoo and its sea lion exhibit — which is in the works right now.

"We have not completed all those things, but … we will," Nieland said.

A typical accreditation lasts for five years. Micke Grove was first accredited in 1990. Nieland said there are 210 accredited zoos and aquariums in the country.

"We are proud to be one of them," he said.

Also Tuesday, supervisors should approve a subdivision off Highway 88 in Clements. "Clements Oakridge Estates" will be near Athearn, B and Anderson streets.

It will have 15 lots on more than 21 acres. Road and street lighting will be maintained by a homeowners association, and a county service area will provide water and storm water drainage.

Contact reporter Roman Gokhman at romang@tracypress.com.