Animal Hospital Plan is at the Top of the List.

by Nikita Stewart

STAR LEDGER STAFF

2/25/04

 

          For the first time in its 40-year history, Essex County's zoo will have a nationally certified director - a significant step in acquiring the needed accreditation that could bring federal funds and more exotic animals into the small zoo.

            Veterinarian Jeremy Goodman a Parsippany native who managed a South Bend, Ind., zoo for more than three years, will take over the county's Turtle Back Zoo on Monday.

            For the past two years, Goodman, 33, has been an inspector for the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, a national nonprofit group whose stamp can lead to federal funding, exchange of animals with accredited zoos and corporate sponsorships that are dependent on AZA accreditation.

          "We have big plans for this zoo," Goodman told a crowd at the zoo in West Orange yesterday. "We're going to take it to the next level."

          Goodman will earn $70,000 and will oversee the zoo's operations and improvements, including a $1.6 million on-site animal hospital, one of the most important requirements for AZA accreditation.

         The county will break ground on the hospital Monday.

         County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo said Goodman is going to turn Turtle Back Zoo into a "first-class zoo."

         "To make a zoo operate and to move it to the next step, you have to have a zoo director," DiVincenzo said. "he's also a veterinarian, so we're getting two in one."

         Gina Zullo, the zoo's curator, has been the acting director off and on in recent years. Animals are currently tranquilized and taken to veterinarians for care, or veterinarians travel to the zoo to treat larger animals.

          Once the hospital is completed, the county will evaluate hiring veterinarians to staff the zoo, said Daniel Salvante, director of recreation. The challenges at Turtle Back are similar to those Goodman tackled at Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend. "This zoo is a mirror image of the previous zoo," Goodman said.

         Founded in 1902, Potawatomi is Indiana's oldest zoo and displays about 500 animals, including an Australian walkabout exhibit with animals native to the continent. About 180,000 people visit the 22-acre zoo each year, said Greg Bockheim, director of Potawatomi.

         The annual budged is about $1.4 million.

         Turtle Back is a much newer zoo and has only has 165 animals, but it has a $1.2 million budget and between 100,000 and 170,000 visitors annually, according to county officials.

         Goodman oversaw the construction of a new $1.1 million animal hospital at Potawatomi, soliciting more than $750,000 in cash and equipment donations for the building.

         He earned $47,218 as assistant director, according to the South Bend personnel department.

         Bockheim credited Goodman with the zoo's major improvements. "He was not only the medical person; he was the manager and assistant director for the entire zoo," Bockheim said.

         Goodman came up with the idea to renovate the zoo's concession stand and gift shop. The new and improved facilities opened about a year and a half ago and significantly boosted revenues, Bockheim said.

         "He was a business-minded man," Bockheim said.

         Profits at the concession stand jumped to $32,000 from less than $5,000 annually, Bockheim said. The gift shop revenues also rose to $130,000 from $100,000 yearly, he said.

         Tog Food Services currently has contracts to run both the concession stand and gift shop, paying the county about $24,000 and $2,750 respectively. The county does not share any revenues generated by the facilities, Salvante said.

         Goodman, who received a degree in animal science from Rutgers University and his medical degree from Tufts University Veterinary School in Massachusetts, called himself a "numbers cruncher."

         He is hoping to apply his knowledge to Turtle Back Zoo, which came to his attention in an online newsletter of the Zoological Society of New Jersey, the nonprofit group that raises funds and promotes development of the zoo.

         Connie Williams, president of the society, had written in the newsletter that the zoo was looking for a director. Goodman said he knew it was the perfect opportunity to return to his New Jersey roots.

         "This is my home. I'm glad to be back," he said.