Good afternoon, everybody.

Welcome to the uh July meeting of the Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic Garden Advisory Board.

Uh, I'd like to call the meeting to order.

Uh, first up, looking at our um May 2026 meeting minutes.

Does anybody have any additions, edits, changes?

I move to be accepted as public.

Second.

A motion and a second.

Uh, all those in favor of accepting ass is say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstentions?

Okay, that passes that.

Next up, we have report a report by uh executive director Beck.

Good afternoon.

Uh thank you all for joining us today and uh coming out on this warm sunny day.

Uh have a lot of updates.

Um, so I will try to talk slowly so I I don't rush through them.

Uh first of all, attendance uh in June of uh this year we had 20,800 people, which you can see was better than uh last year, but uh about a little bit below the last few years, so 23, 24, and 22 or about in the mid-20s.

Um that really I think is just because it's weather related, but we're already at 108,000 visitors for the year.

Um so that's a good number, six months in and already over a hundred thousand visitors.

Uh so that's I think that's promising for the rest of the year.

Uh revenue for the month, uh hundred and sixty-two thousand dollars in in gross uh revenue for the month.

Um you can see that's uh that's above last year and the year before that.

Uh the record for June was two thousand and twenty-two, twenty twenty-two, yeah.

213,000.

Um gift shop revenue, gift shop revenue for the month of June was 43,000.

We're already over 200,000 in gross sales in the gift shop, which you don't have to go back to far to see that that was uh that would have been a good annual year uh for a total uh all the you know, just in the really in the past five years have we really spiked up uh really since COVID uh with gift shop sales, and I think that just goes to a few things uh just gift shop merchandise um being stocked and funded.

And I think people spend more money when they're out doing things, they're spending more money out of their pocket at the zoo.

Um and we and I think zoos across the country are seeing that their in park spend is higher than uh before COVID, and that's maintaining, so that's good.

Uh concessions.

This is our um uh concessions vendors gross sales for the month.

Looks like we're our current through May, and it looks like they had several record months in February, March, and April for them, so that's good to hear.

And they're already at 163,000 in gross sales for the year uh through the first the first five months.

Their reporting lags a little bit behind though ours, just so uh just the way they report their numbers to us.

Uh VenueWorks is our concessionaire.

So that's uh that's the attendance and revenue.

Uh, before I go on to staffing and other updates, anybody have any questions on on those numbers?

What percentage do we get from uh venue works again?

Uh it is 10%, but and then it's 10% of um anything that we don't spend with them.

So, like when we pull an event ourselves and spend money with them, it doesn't factor into that, but normal daily sales, uh vending, all that, we get 10% of their gross.

Yeah.

Any other questions?

At least they pay.

Yes.

We've had a couple in the past that didn't.

Right.

Or just go eight wall for a while.

So no, that uh we continue to uh push them forward and uh continue to do a lot of things, so we're I'll let Kristen here later speak to some of the events, but we're working on um a lot of events come up here soon.

Eric, if we look ahead on the the statistics, it looks like last year we set a record in August, September, October, and it looks like our gift shop set a record, look like our grill set a record.

Uh do we anticipate that again with the special Yeah?

So that that was the months that our lantern event took place and uh uh good news to report was that all the items arrived last week.

We had six semi show up last week with all of the lanterns.

Uh the theme is really its nature, and it's got a lot of wildlife, a lot of horticulture displays, swans, uh, eager, it's beautiful.

And uh that crew will be on site starting in about a week and a half to set up, and we're on schedule to be opening um end of July.

Um we've had a little bit of hiccups with the company, and they've been great to work with as far as navigating it, but um their main workforce is um our Chinese that come in and work on visas uh to do this work, whether it's the artisan work, they s the uh building of the displays with uh welding or the painting and the fabric, they do all of that themselves.

So they've either been denied visas or uh not able to get their visas renewed.

So while they have all their shows happening all over the country, they've really been um chasing how to staff them.

So uh the setup will be uh amalgamation of a few of their experts and then a lot of local people helping them as far as being hands uh from the local labor union stuff that we've been working with uh to help unload trucks.

So yeah, we did six six unloaded six trucks last week and uh hopefully be setting up.

But tickets are already on sale on our website.

You can buy them in advance, but uh I expect yeah, those those um August, September, October numbers to be strong again this year.

Um and we did learn a lot last year from being our first year that uh I especially on the um merchandise um which would show up on the EZS merchandise, but um with all a lot of the things that we see uh that we hope yeah, we'll we'll continue to improve upon.

But uh it's gonna be a great show.

Thank you.

Beautiful last year.

Yeah.

Yeah, and it's all different.

So if you saw it last year, you can come this year and uh you will see completely different show.

Do you have anything else on Wild Summer Lights?

Actually, I do.

Yeah, okay.

Since you went ahead and uh I just want to add uh it'll run every Thursday through Sunday, beginning July 30th, running through October 4th, 6 to 10 p.m.

this year.

Um tickets are on sale now, $18 for adults, th or sorry, $18 for adults, 16 for children, two and under R free.

Uh $3 off each ticket price if you are a member of the zoo, which is another great benefit of your zoo membership.

Um something we're gonna do a little bit different this year is we do we have mapped out four what we're calling accessibility nights where we'll have a lower crowd, a lower number, and able to run both trams.

Um and it'll just be a little bit smaller crowd and um and then those who have um you know different levels of ability and um you know mobility and to be able to ride the tram, just not as much noise and as much going on and and just uh easier, easier pathways to walk and and more um more space to run those trams, and I think that'll be really nice.

And those dates are listed.

There's uh two um closer to the beginning of the event and two closer to the end of the event, and um those dates are on our website as well.

Um there was something else about that that was really important, but I can't remember what it was.

We're really excited.

We've got uh live music every night on Lyons Plaza and food trucks lined up, so it'll be it'll be great.

I think that's all I have for that.

Sorry.

Yeah, one of the one of the things that we tried to start last year that we hope to expand on this year is just um people that have problems walking the entire event um and getting them um taking away that hurdle by uh having these nights that are accessible where there's fewer crowds so we can run our tram.

Um when it gets super busy, we cannot run the tram just because of the crowds and the size of the path.

It just becomes and it's nighttime with kids and strollers and all that.

So um knowing that these nights are uh kind of set aside for accessible, we'll be able to run the tram if you have family members that need that little extra um help getting around the park.

We uh they can either ride the tram on those nights, and then we still have our rental scooters that we do every night that are uh electric uh mobility scooters that we rent.

So they just go quickly just because there's a lot of demand for that.

So any other event things that we can talk about now?

And then I'll sure.

Uh this just uh kind of one on top of the other this year, and we're our teams really been running on the EZS side along with everyone else, of course.

Um our whole job I always say is to create more work for everybody else, including ourselves, which is good and bad.

Um Zoo Brew was June 13th at the zoo.

Um we've been doing this one for a lot of years.

Um we had about 700 tickets sold for that event.

We had a partnership this year with the Big Green Egg with leisure distributors, and they brought several big green egg grills out, and they did cooking demonstrations and people could sample their their food and and then they were able to raffle off one of their um, they were generous enough to raffle off one of their grills uh for with the proceeds benefiting the zoo.

Um it was a great event.

It it brings in a very different crowd than we normally see with our membership, which is really great.

Um next up uh once we open Wild Summer Lights will be our annual vintage Vines Gala at uh Evansville Country Club, and that is August 22nd.

And um this uh is gonna be a sellout group.

Um we're tickets will we're going fast, we're selling tables.

I think we've got about 14 tables sold already.

So uh it's a very well attended event and uh it's a lot of fun.

Great.

Thanks.

Any questions for Kristen before I move on to other updates?

Yeah, lots going on.

It's a busy time of year.

Um especially with events, so and we're really excited that Wild Summer Lights uh came together.

They've been working, uh Kristen's been working non-stop as far as coordinating.

She's a point of contact with Tianu.

I might have cried a little bit last month.

So there's been a few a few tough weeks on uh coordinating this uh with Tianu's challenges.

So but they've honestly been great, they've been really responsive and they've they've managed to accommodate um quite a bit, and so and so have we.

Um so um some other updates that I had were just on the staffing side.

Uh we're still down at Animal Curator, we've been down our animal curators since um oh boy, last uh September trying to get that filled.

Uh, we're having some challenges just finding the right person for that job.

Um met with some city administration folks this week and trying to uh think of some creative ways to make that more appealing.

So uh we'll keep at it.

Uh we did get a veterinetean job approved, which is a new position.

Um, and so that we're actually starting interviews this week with uh Dr.

Bradley.

Um so that'll be our second veterinary tech.

We only have one right now, and then we'll have a second one that that'll be a nice uh game changer for uh the veterinary department who um when they do when they do big procedures or big uh cases there, they're always working together, the two of them.

So having a third person where they they're not working seven, fourteen, you know, twenty days in a row without a day off is uh would be nice.

Um and then I think I mentioned that the last meeting, uh Stephanie, our guest services manager retired after a long and illustrious career at the zoo.

Um, and so that job is getting ready to be posted uh through the city website.

And she was the first and only guest services manager at our zoo in its history.

Uh, it was created uh way back when and when she started, and um she's been the only person in it.

So uh it'll be a big shoes to fill, and uh have had few people interested in it, but uh uh really and that that job really takes care of everything from ticketing, gift shop, all the attractions, all the rides, all the amenities, um, all the guest-facing part of the zoo.

So it's it's a big job and has a lot of a lot of direct reports.

So uh looking forward to getting that one filled too because it is definitely key, not only for events but for day-to-day, day-to-day uh keeping the zoo open.

Uh some animal updates that we had.

Uh I think you may hopefully saw on the news we uh our new Jaguar Reba is now out in the tiger habitat now, just getting used to being at our zoo.

Um Belize are resident female jaguars still doing really well, but eventually they might go uh not together but in the same uh area up in Amazonia.

Uh we've had I think three penguin chicks this season.

Um and I think they're all on exhibit right now.

I think they're all they've graduated from swim class behind the scenes to uh being on habitat with the adults where they can swim and hold their own.

So and I think even one of the parents this year was uh one of our first chicks uh that hatched at Meshka Park Zoo.

So uh already seeing seeing second generation of penguins at Meseker Park Zoo.

Uh we did have there you go.

We did have a colobus baby born two weeks ago.

Um so we've always had a nice troop of colabus monkeys, uh the African species of uh monkeys that they have the black face with the white with the white uh area, and then they have a really long bushy tail.

Um so great species.

We've been really prolifer prolific with them.

Um we unfortunately had some bad news in in the animal department as you know with the large diverse collection is uh unfortunately a part of doing business doing business and taking care of this this many animals.

We did have to euthanize our male talken, which was our he was a big boy.

He was uh he was I think over 700 pounds, he was just massive.

Um and he was beautiful, but he had arthritis, and we've been dealing with hoof care challenges with him, um, and he was just not recovering and not mobile as far as uh I've got those problems too, Eric.

Uh yeah, well there's uh quality of life that decisions that are made for all of us.

Um we just get a little more uh tools in our tool belt uh than human care does for sure.

Um he was not doing well and and having a lot of problems, so that I know it was a really tough decision because he he was really loved by um all the staff and visitors alike.

So uh so we'll be looking for another male male adult talking for our group since our our girls have uh done really well as far as um uh being together and producing babies, so it is important to keep that population sustainable.

Uh a few project updates.

Um we had some good news with the city uh uh climate collaborative.

Uh they uh bid out and it was accepted for many solar projects around the city.

Uh three of those projects will be at the zoos.

So uh the clay memorial building, which uh was built in 1954 and got a new roof three years ago.

Uh we'll be getting a solar array on top of it.

Uh the Discovery Center, which was opened in 91, got a new roofed a month ago.

Uh we'll have a solar array on its roof.

Uh and then the one that is uh the most challenging but the most exciting is that we're looking at a uh some sort of parking lot canopy array for Amazonia.

Uh so there'll be some level of um a large array in our parking lot uh that will be able to support electrical needs and even possible some options for some battery backup in case of emergency um in one of the buildings.

So uh we were kind of hopeful to get maybe get one of those projects underway through this uh climate collaborative and Ebonzel water and sewer utility program.

Um but we were able to get all three, and I think it's a total of 16 projects across the city.

Uh so that's that's fantastic.

So I'm actually meeting with the first vendor uh next week to kind of kick that off and get it going.

Uh Amazonia boardwalk, which has been a long uh project, but we do have that out for prices now, and you'll see that on our other business item.

We'll be opening those quotes in in the next parks board meeting.

Uh paving work, which is what we uh opened and approved a few meetings ago.

That that work's getting ready to kick off.

That'll be around the entire zoo.

Uh just areas where paving and pads need to be uh refreshed or have chip trip hazards, sorry.

Uh so that that will hopefully be done before Wild Summer Light starts here in the next uh few weeks.

Uh and then we're getting ready to put out a package for a lot of fencing and containment projects, just uh old fencing uh stuff, rotted wood, perimeter fencing that needs refreshed after we had a large tree fall on our perimeter fence during the uh wind event last week.

Uh so we have lots of little areas that need to be addressed and um our crews putting that package together now, so that'll go out here shortly.

Um so that's really kind of a lot of the animal goings on and projects going on.

So anybody have any uh other questions or comments?

Could I ask a quick question?

Um about the uh cellar.

It was just a surprise uh to hear you're getting three of those projects.

Are there any estimates about like the number of megawatts that's gonna be and maybe um the amount of money that's gonna save in utility bills?

Right.

So uh Lauren with Ebenso Climate Crowd Collaborative has really spearheaded that.

So we provided all of our usage data.

Uh what I haven't seen is how big the arrays that they are buying are gonna backfill the usage.

Um so yeah, it's gonna be a pretty significant savings.

Now the way they packaged it financially is uh we will continue to pay, but we will pay back essentially a loan to water and sewer, but then when that loan's done, which I think is six years, um, then those reductions in utility costs will be just you know wiped as far as us having to pay anyone.

Um so yeah, it'll be nice to see how big of an array they got on these roofs to accommodate because we took our heaviest users.

Um we took our three, well, yeah, three of our top five have buildings that have the largest usage to try to get the mat most impact.

So yeah.

So yeah, I'm I'm curious to see where the design ends up to see how many kilowatts we get put back in.

Other questions?

Okay, thank you, Director Beck.

Um up next, uh no new business, but we have uh some uh business dealing with opening sealed quotes for Amazonia boardwalk.

Um this is gonna be at the parks board meeting on the 15th.

Uh does this require any action of our board?

It it is not require any action.

I just wanted to make sure uh that you uh knew that we were putting this out.

It is out to contractors.

I hired a design firm um three iEngineering to do the structural uh design for this, and we're using a sustainable product to go back in.

Uh the Douglas fur that was installed back in 2006 uh is just beyond its expected life's capacity.

So I'm anxious to get some pricing on that, and hopefully it will uh we'll get some bids this time.

I did a walkthrough yesterday, and I had four general contractors show up.

So if you see that on the news or in the uh uh parks board items, uh that'll hopefully be happening on July 15th, and then we'll take action on those packets after that.

If you remember we we worked through some of the three I quote getting things in the previous months of uh meetings okay anything else no anything any other questions any questions about that latest thing when it comes back to us we'll we'll see the details but okay hearing none um we will adjourn for the July meeting uh thanks everyone uh and I'm gonna go watch the Argentina game thank you everyone