Parks board removes giraffe barn from $24 million bond; keeps bond, reassigns $10 million for maintenance

The Evansville Board of Parks Commissioners voted to remove a proposed giraffe barn from a planned parks bond package during a preliminary bond hearing Sept. 2, while keeping the overall bond authorization at $24 million and directing staff to reallocate the roughly $10 million for maintenance and other zoo needs.

The board opened the preliminary determination hearing on a bond “not to exceed $24,000,000,” and administration representatives announced they had asked the board to pull the giraffe-barn project from the bond. “The administration has decided to pull the giraffe barn from this bond,” an administration official said during the hearing. Dennis Sutton, bond counsel with Bose McKinney & Evans, explained that removing the barn eliminated the need for extra legal procedures tied to a controlled-project threshold of $6,350,000 that would otherwise trigger additional hearings and a 30-day public-petition period.

Sarah Dower, Evansville’s corporation counsel, told the board the administration heard members’ concerns about schedule and the project’s cost and that removing the barn “does not remove the need for that item.” She said the city intends to keep the bond at $24 million and “reallocate those $10,000,000 into other buckets, to help with maintenance and improvements.”

Board members pressed advisers on tax impacts and schedule. Financial adviser Jennifer Hudson of London Witte Group said the current bond structuring aims to hold the city’s tax rate constant for the 2025 budget; counsel added that individual property tax bills may rise if an owner’s assessed value increases even if the tax rate does not. Hudson said the 2025 debt-service levy associated with the parks bond was estimated to add roughly 6 cents to the tax rate in the illustrative structure discussed during the hearing.

The board debated whether to remove the giraffe-barn line item immediately or to renotice hearings; members agreed the administration’s removal would provide the most schedule flexibility. The chair then moved to remove the giraffe-barn item from the bond package; Commissioner Stewart made the motion, Commissioner Bates seconded, and the board passed it on a roll-call vote (Stewart yes; Bates yes; Kenny no; Klingone yes; Peterman yes).

The board directed staff to reissue legal notice and hold a public-comment hearing on Oct. 16, followed by formal appropriation and confirmatory hearings and a final vote on Oct. 30. Counsel said reissuing notice and presenting revised documents would give board members time to review updated allocations and dollar figures before the final action.

What’s next: the Parks Board will receive revised bond documents and a reissued public notice in advance of the Oct. 16 comment hearing and the Oct. 30 final hearings, when the board may adopt the appropriation and confirmatory resolutions authorizing the financing.