Thursday, September 4, 2014

Zoo Board on 'whirlwind' 2-day tour

A number of folks on the Knoxville Zoo Board, including Casual Chris Caldwell, the county’s finance director, are hanging out in Oklahoma City right now, ready to check out the local zoo there.

“I promise you, it’s a legit trip,” Caldwell said laughing. “It’s going to be a jam-packed two days – a whirlwind tour.”

Casual said a small group, who left Knoxville at 6:45 a.m. on private planes and will return tomorrow at 10:45 p.m., plan to visit zoos in Oklahoma City and Dallas today, and then zoos in Fort Worth, Waco and Tyler tomorrow.

The Tyler, Texas zoo by the way is actually called the Caldwell Zoo. Heh.

“We’re looking for ways to improve our zoo,” he said.

The groups will focus on certain things at each zoo. For example, he said they’ll look at grasslands and elephant exhibits in Oklahoma City and Dallas. In Forth Worth, they’ll check out the herpetology stuff (that’s amphibians and reptiles).

He said the zoo and those going are paying for the trip.

No comments: