By Quinn O’Hara

A Welcome Center is planned to be constructed in the spring of 2024 at the Clay Center Zoo.

The new building will serve as a community meeting space, a gift shop, new exhibits, an over-winter area for the Zoo’s tropical birds, and will have public restrooms accessible from inside and outside the building.

Scott Glaves of the Clay Center Public Utilities Commission says he is very excited for the possibility of hosting schools from outside the community in the center:

Glaves says another big piece of the puzzle is a splash pad that would be located near the facility, and is excited for the future of the park:

Glaves says that over the past two years of fundraising efforts, roughly $325,000 has been raised for the center.