A giraffe at the 134-year-old Roger Williams Park Zoo, the third oldest zoo in the nation.

The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

Question 6: $11 million for zoo improvements

PROVIDENCE — Question 6 on the statewide general election ballot is a bid by the Rhode Island Zoological Society to help raise money for renovation and modernization of Roger Williams Park Zoo.

The ballot will ask voters to approve an $11-million allocation to help with a five-year, $35-million plan to revitalize the zoo.

The Rhode Island Zoological Society announced last month that it was seeking support for the plan.

In addition to money from the $11-million bond issue, zoo officials hope to finance the project with $4 million already secured from a 2004 bond issue and $20 million in private donations.

Officials said $6 million in private donations has already been raised.

The project, which is expected to be completed in 2011, would expand and modernize the Plains of Africa elephant exhibit; create a 3.5-acre North American trail, complete with polar bears, bald eagles and owls; add a New England trail with a children’s zoo, a handicap-accessible tree house and renovated wetlands boardwalk; and construct a veterinary hospital and quarantine center.

The board of trustees of the zoological society, the nonprofit group that operates the zoo for the city, has been talking for years about ways to modernize the 134-year-old zoo, the third oldest in the nation, according to John Palumbo, chairman of the board.

While the zoo has evolved into a “jewel for this entire state and for the region,” attracting 650,000 visitors each year for the last six years, half of whom come from out of state, and generates $13.5 million in annual revenue for the state, officials have said the facility has begun to decline and lose some of its appeal.

The zoo began to flourish in the 1980s when the polar bear exhibit was created.

Jack Mulvena, executive director of the zoological society and zoo manager, said the facility maintained its vitality in the 1980s and 1990s by opening major exhibits every year and attracting a peak number of visitors — 770,000 — in 1997.

But the last major exhibit opened was the Marco Polo trail in 1996, he said.

Attendance has declined in recent years, and last year the zoo’s last polar bear died suddenly as she was being prepared to move to another facility to make room for renovation.

The revitalization plan calls for the creation of more exhibits, the addition of new animals and changes that will make the zoo more user-friendly, enabling visitors to get closer to the animals.

“This is not only going to benefit [visiting] families,” said Lisa Bousquet, a zoo spokeswoman. “It is also going to benefit tourism, an industry which is so important to our state.”

By attracting so many visitors to the state each year, the zoo is recognized as a “key cog in the state’s tourism machine” and an important part of the economy, she said.

Zoo officials have launched a $100,000 advertising campaign to encourage residents to vote yes on Question 6, emphasizing how importing the money would be in ensuring the future of the zoo.