Great Bend ? Improvements to the Great Bend Zoo and the development of the Central Kansas Raptor Center aren’t going to be cheap, but it was reported this week that the city staff have worked to save thousands of dollars from the original plans.

For the time being, they have cut more than $100,000, officials explained to the Great Bend City Council.

City Administrator Howard Partington, City Clerk Wayne Henneke and Zoo Director Mike Cargill discussed the project.

Partington noted that a variety of funding sources have been brought together to create the facility that will turn the local zoo into a regional facility.

Funding for the raptor project and the remodeling of the zoo includes $645,000 in a federal grant that was secured by Sen. Pat Roberts.

Originally, the total for all of the projects, for the development of the raptor project, the renovations to the zoo, the development of the different continent exhibits — North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Australia — was expected to total $1.7 million.

However, Henneke explained, the difference involves projects that have been put on hold until the zoo receive AZA accreditation.

Work will continue to get American Zoological Association accreditation for the local facility, because that is the only way it can continue to grow as a regionally important zoo facility.

In the future, many of the important zoo exhibits will only be available through AZA facilities and the animals will be placed “on loan” from their home site.

Animal exhibits on hold for now include the binturong, gibbon, sloth bear, marmoset, sun bear and tamarin.

In the mean time, work continues to finish the raptor center and get the building, which will be the new entrance to the local zoo, up, running and landscaped for the coming spring, Cargill explained.

The raptor project is expected to grow into a nationally recognized program, due to the need for raptor rehabilitation. Cargill noted that 60 percent of all birds of prey that hatch each year will starve to death in their first year of life.