{"id":5761,"date":"2025-10-17T12:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T12:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/5761\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T12:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T12:50:07","slug":"erie-zoo-in-danger-of-closing-without-response-from-city-on-transferring-ownership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/5761\/","title":{"rendered":"Erie Zoo in danger of closing without response from city on transferring ownership"},"content":{"rendered":"

(WJET\/WFXP<\/a>)\u2013 Time may be running out to save the Erie Zoo, that\u2019s according to a new story published by the Erie Times-News Thursday night.<\/p>\n

According to the Erie Times News<\/a>, the Erie County Convention Center Authority, which owns and operates Erie Events, sent a letter to City of Erie Solicitor Ed Betza and members of city council saying they need a response about their proposal to transfer ownership made in October 2024. <\/p>\n

\t
\n\t\tCity council discusses ownership transfer of Erie Zoo\t<\/a><\/p>\n

That letter called the zoo\u2019s financial future dire and unsustainable and that time is critical to avoid the zoo shutting down. It also said once the process has started, it can\u2019t be stopped and the zoo would be lost forever. <\/p>\n

The story also quotes zoo board member and former state senator Jane Earll as saying, \u201cThis is real \u2026 We are not making idle threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betza told the Erie Times News he reviewed the letter and is preparing a package proposal for Erie Events and zoo officials that could be presented as soon as next week. <\/p>\n

Talks about transferring ownership of the zoo, Glenwood Golf Course, Flo Fabrizio Ice Rink and Glenwood Park from Erie Events, which the Erie Times News reported has no plans of directly managing daily zoo operations, began back in January 2024.<\/p>\n

\t
\n\t\tErie Zoo asks city to transfer 106 acre property to Erie Events\t<\/a><\/p>\n

That proposal was reviewed by Erie City Council in June, with council later unanimously passing a resolution to good faith negotiations with Erie Events in early July, but talks have not been without their issues. <\/p>\n

The Erie Zoo also lost AZA accreditation in 2021, citing insufficient funding as well as a lack of modern exhibits. <\/p>\n

Part of what it would take to get it back includes building a veterinary care facility, which would cost about $10 million, something the zoo board said would require a partner.<\/p>\n

It would also require\u00a0the zoo to have a certain level of trained staff in relation to the care and medical needs of the animals, something Erie Events Executive Director Gus Pine called a struggle for the zoo\u2019s current salary capabilities.<\/p>\n

\t
\n\t\tCity officials commit to resuming talks on Erie Zoo ownership transfer\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe request right now from Erie Events and the zoo is for the city to transfer 106 acres of property completely at no charge,\u201d Betza told us back on May 6. <\/p>\n

Under a land transfer like this, the city has no guarantees in terms of the future use of the property.<\/p>\n

Both the city solicitor as well as the mayor\u2019s staff have had meetings with board members of the zoo and Erie Events representatives to work on an agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(WJET\/WFXP)\u2013 Time may be running out to save the Erie Zoo, that\u2019s according to a new story published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[841,5243,5242,136,5241,3887,138,137,3466,3888],"class_list":["post-5761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-city-of-erie","tag-close-erie-zoo","tag-could-erie-zoo-close","tag-erie","tag-erie-city-council","tag-erie-events","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-erie-zoo","tag-erie-zoo-closing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}