MEMPHIS, Tennessee —
The Memphis Zoo is in jeopardy of closing. Tuesday afternoon, the Memphis City Council counted every cent of federal COVID-19 relief funds, known as the CARES Act and turned every stone to figure out how to keep the nationally recognized zoo open.
In the end, council members allocated a total of more than $10 million in CARES Act and city grant money to save the Memphis Zoo and help out the other 4 attractions known as City Assets such as The Pink Palace Museum, Brooks Museum, the Botanic Garden, and AutoZone Park.
Council Chairwoman Patrice Robinson and Councilman Jeff Warren were among the first to express the importance of keeping these landmarks open in the midst a health crisis.
"All of these things are treasures we have built as a city and we need to support them. At this point in time, if we have funds from CARES that will support them, we need to do that until we can buy time we need to work with the administration to make this happen the best we can," said Warren.
Other council members agreed. The option would have been to start making calls to other zoos across the country to take the animals and the Memphis Zoo would slowly limit its hours of operations all the way down to an eventual close.
Also approved Tuesday, more than $2 million in COVID relief funds for homeless shelters and digital learning for SCS students.
