City seeks clarification on aviary issues

Sept. 27--WALLA WALLA -- A barrage of unanswered questions from City Council to staff has led to a special work session meeting on Monday to discuss the future of the Pioneer Park Aviary.

"I feel it is not good for Friends of the (Pioneer Park) Aviary to have an ambiguous path to follow and I find this path is confusing," Council member Chris Plucker said at a Council meeting last week.

Most of the concerns voiced by Council members dealt with funding, when the city would receive its promised $185,000 to build the new enclosure and if and how Friends of the Pioneer Park Aviary would take over running the facility.

"I think this leads back to the city owning, funding and operating the aviary," Plucker added.

Friends spokesman Shane Laib said the group has every intention of taking over the facility and associated costs next year, and it plans to turn over the money at the appropriate time.

"We are not going to turn over the money until we have an agreement," Laib said.

This week, Friends will begin sending emails to the people who pledged funds for the new enclosure. Laib estimated that 90 percent of the donations were through online pledges.

Parks & Recreation Director Jim Dumont said the engineer's plans will be finished by December, and bid requests will go out in January. He also recommends the city partially fund the aviary for the next two years to give Friends time to get fundraising in place for the operation costs.

If Council approves partial funding, the cost to the city would be $27,500 per year.

Some Council members, however, were reluctant to begin building until all the details were worked out.

"We need to have some confidence that this organization is going to be able to operate the aviary on a regular basis, and I don't see that," Council member Barbara Clark said.

Current plans include a reduction in the 187-bird population. All birds in the larger enclosure would have to be moved to the smaller enclosure while the larger enclosure is being rebuilt.

Once completed, the birds would be relocated to the new enclosure and the smaller enclosure would be removed, Laib said.

The cost of the new enclosure is expect to be about $375,000, with $185,000 provided by Friends and the remaining $190,000 from insurance claims from storm damage in 2008.

Monday's work session starts at 5 p.m. in City Hall, 15 N. Third Ave.

Alfred Diaz can be reached at alfreddiaz@wwub.com or 526-8325.

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