Is the Zoo privately or publicly funded? If it's publicly funded, the news would go batpoop insane. Fox 9 news station here is hugely overzealous.
My zoo update
- Thread starter Zoodiver
- Start date
Is the Zoo privately or publicly funded? If it's publicly funded, the news would go batpoop insane. Fox 9 news station here is hugely overzealous.
New to this forum, can't seem to be able to do anything until your five posts. I would love to see the work being done. Have you advertised for this locally yet, because I haven't heard anything about it? I was also wondering if I could volunteer and help out, getting payed is always good, but just to be around there would be worth it.
wow... sure has been quite the "journey" for this whole thing.... but, am confident it will all be up and running in the near future, as with the amount of money that has already been "sunk" quitting would not be an option at this point! sure does sound like a great source of frustration at times....
would definitely like to check it out when all done! looks very cool and very ambitious... good luck with it all and near-future completion date...!
as an aside.... i think that immature, juvenile @ssh&le ewurm should be fed to a pack of hungry flesh-eaters....
would definitely like to check it out when all done! looks very cool and very ambitious... good luck with it all and near-future completion date...!
as an aside.... i think that immature, juvenile @ssh&le ewurm should be fed to a pack of hungry flesh-eaters....
OUTSTANDING!!!! GREAT WORK!! "She who must be obeyed", wants to go to the mall of america this year. Is the offer for a behind the scenes tour still on the table? I could marvel at your exhibit while she marvels at the preset spending limit ill put on my credit card (i aint
). Anyway Ill drop you a line when the plans are set to see if you're available.
). Anyway Ill drop you a line when the plans are set to see if you're available.Matt,
Looks like you had a lot of problems similar to some of the ones I had helping build the DWA river exhibit. We had a concrete sealing company that wanted to seal the concreate with zypex which they used in many marine mammal exhibits. After looking into the product information, I found that zypex penetrates the concrete and raises the pH of the concrete to 14! This is to prevent corrosion of the rebar inside the concrete, this is commonly used on highway overpasses but you can see how it's not exactly ideal for a SA exhibit. I convenced Daryl to seal it with a rubber based sealer just in time to prevent the zypex from being applied. I also tried to convince Daryl that the exhibit needed a heater to maintain around an 80f temp before we added any animals. Well that was a huge added expense and he really wanted to have a large A. gigas in the exhibit when it first opened to the public. So he decieded to add the large A. gigas that we traded a couple of seadragons for from the Henry Doorley Zoo before any heater was installed. Well he didn't last very long and when it died that showed him the importance of the heater and he finally added the gas unit thats on the roof of the old building. In the meantime I got in 25 new born A. gigas and rasied them up and I think there are still some of those original animals in the exhibit. I was about your age when we were building the Orinoco rainforest and I know what you mean about not being taken seriously at that age. The only good thing is if your stay cool headed and stay the course you will be proven correct and in the end your advise will be taken more seriously. Sometimes the expense of the higher ups poor decisions really suck but don't let it get to you and make you look like a hot head or you'll never be listened to. You can only do the best you can with what you have.
It does look like you have much more back area room than DWA but thats not too hard to beat! I'm in the process of purchasing property to start my own little public aquarium (DWA, only better). Maybe you might like to move to OKC in a few years when I'll be looking for some qualified individuals.
Also did you hear that Courtney quit DWA!! I guess nobody can last forever at that place!
Well good luck on your project and keep posting those pics.
Gary
Looks like you had a lot of problems similar to some of the ones I had helping build the DWA river exhibit. We had a concrete sealing company that wanted to seal the concreate with zypex which they used in many marine mammal exhibits. After looking into the product information, I found that zypex penetrates the concrete and raises the pH of the concrete to 14! This is to prevent corrosion of the rebar inside the concrete, this is commonly used on highway overpasses but you can see how it's not exactly ideal for a SA exhibit. I convenced Daryl to seal it with a rubber based sealer just in time to prevent the zypex from being applied. I also tried to convince Daryl that the exhibit needed a heater to maintain around an 80f temp before we added any animals. Well that was a huge added expense and he really wanted to have a large A. gigas in the exhibit when it first opened to the public. So he decieded to add the large A. gigas that we traded a couple of seadragons for from the Henry Doorley Zoo before any heater was installed. Well he didn't last very long and when it died that showed him the importance of the heater and he finally added the gas unit thats on the roof of the old building. In the meantime I got in 25 new born A. gigas and rasied them up and I think there are still some of those original animals in the exhibit. I was about your age when we were building the Orinoco rainforest and I know what you mean about not being taken seriously at that age. The only good thing is if your stay cool headed and stay the course you will be proven correct and in the end your advise will be taken more seriously. Sometimes the expense of the higher ups poor decisions really suck but don't let it get to you and make you look like a hot head or you'll never be listened to. You can only do the best you can with what you have.
It does look like you have much more back area room than DWA but thats not too hard to beat! I'm in the process of purchasing property to start my own little public aquarium (DWA, only better). Maybe you might like to move to OKC in a few years when I'll be looking for some qualified individuals.
Also did you hear that Courtney quit DWA!! I guess nobody can last forever at that place!
Well good luck on your project and keep posting those pics.
Gary
Gary, I think I have more room in my apartment than the DWA had for back areas!
I'll be done here when this opens and out looking again. So keep in touch.
Fishfun - They haven't done much for putting word out yet, but if you swing by the zoo, you can see in from the new Visitor Center and get a sneak peak. It at least looks close now.
As for the website and the HUGE sign out front.....it's almsot funny. There is a 3'x6' sign out front announcing construction was done. If you looked behind it, all you could see was construction. The staff got a kick out of it.
Right now, it looks like once the fish go in, we open without the birds. The cooling system is almost complete as well. It's over a year behind and the public (and keepers) are very up tight right now about it. None of our holding were designed to keep animals this long(Birds, mammals, herps or fish).
I do have to say, the new paint looks MUCH better. I had them do a lighter color and a more mottled application. It breaks the light better and really adds size (visually) to the exhibits.
I'll be done here when this opens and out looking again. So keep in touch.
Fishfun - They haven't done much for putting word out yet, but if you swing by the zoo, you can see in from the new Visitor Center and get a sneak peak. It at least looks close now.
As for the website and the HUGE sign out front.....it's almsot funny. There is a 3'x6' sign out front announcing construction was done. If you looked behind it, all you could see was construction. The staff got a kick out of it.
Right now, it looks like once the fish go in, we open without the birds. The cooling system is almost complete as well. It's over a year behind and the public (and keepers) are very up tight right now about it. None of our holding were designed to keep animals this long(Birds, mammals, herps or fish).
I do have to say, the new paint looks MUCH better. I had them do a lighter color and a more mottled application. It breaks the light better and really adds size (visually) to the exhibits.
Looks amazing so far Matt. Glad to see things are running (for the most part) a lot smoother than before. Hope everything comes together, and you guys are able to open soon. I know you will be glad once this is over - hell you might be lucky and get to go back to working 5 days a week instead of 7. LOL. Well good luck with it, and keep us updated.
--Em
--Em
Here you go, I finally re-sizwed this shot. It's priceless.
The black lines are cracks that were mostly over 15" deep. We filled them with heavy rubber based sealant prior to the over all concrete sealer. It's working well so far. We painted over it all to blend it away again.
The black lines are cracks that were mostly over 15" deep. We filled them with heavy rubber based sealant prior to the over all concrete sealer. It's working well so far. We painted over it all to blend it away again.
your guys had to re seal the cracks or the original construction company had to seal them? that is a lot of f@cking cracks.
