The flamingo exhibit at the Miller Park Zoo is budgeted for the current fiscal year. (WJBC file photo)

By Adam Studzinski

BLOOMINGTON – The planned flamingo exhibit at the Miller Park Zoo has hit a bump in the road.

Zoo superintendent Jay Tetzloff said the exhibit is budgeted at $250,000. However, the lowest bid for construction was more than $331,000.

"We're going to kind of go back to the drawing board," said Tetzloff. "Our goal and hope is not to lose any of the things that we want in the design; things that our guests are going to like, things that our staff are going to like, and especially the birds are going to like."

Tetzloff explained one cost cutting measure is to bring in fewer birds for the exhibit. This will mean the size of the exhibit as a whole can be reduced.

"We were talking about in the mid-30s, in terms of how many birds we're going in our flock, and now we're talking more in the mid-20s which is still a large flock,” said Tetzloff. “It still will give the birds that safety of having numbers."

The zoo is also planning to change where the breeding area will be.

"Which will save us, we believe, on concrete, and excavation and that kind of work," Tetzloff said.

Tetzloff said the plan is still to build the exhibit sometime this year.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].