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[[underlined]] Rock Creek Repairs and Renovations. [[/underlined]] In addition to the Master Plan, the Zoological Park is responsible for a continuing program of major maintenance and repair for its sixty separate facilities and extensive network of paths, roadways and landscaped areas. About $500,000 to $650,000 is required annually for structural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing repairs and renovations, as well as animal support and housing requirements, and grounds, roadways, and major utility repairs and improvements.

[[underlined]] Conservation Center Repairs and Improvements. [[/underlined]] Since acquiring the Front Royal site in 1975, the Zoo has been engaged in a program designed to occupy and hold the land including some emergency repairs. The Institution has retained serviceable structures for use where there is clear need, and is demolishing deteriorated and unusable structures. Most of the animal containment fencing is in place for major paddocks and for the overall site, and most of the initial repairs to essential utilities and buildings have been completed. In FY 1979, the Institution obligated about $100,000 of nonappropriated trust funds to purchase additional land encircled by the original tract. In FY 1980, about $120,000 was committed to development of a formal and detailed plan for rehabilitation and improvements much like the original Rock Creek master plan. This document is expected to be available for review next summer. Also, in FY 1980, new city sanitary and water hookups were completed, and new hoofed stock facilities design was initiated.

Total repair and improvement costs spanning FY 1975-1986 for the Conservation Center are estimated to be approximately $12,000,000. In FY 1981, $1,000,000 is expected to permit the Conservation Center to advance in coordination with Rock Creek construction. Projects include facilities for hoofed stock, renovation of the maintenance and staff services buildings, and road maintenance and improvement. Follow-on projects are expected to amount to about $7,000,000 through FY 1986.

[[underlined]] Restoration, Renovation and Other Construction [[/underlined]]

The Restoration and Renovation of Buildings account is used to find building repairs, alterations and improvements, as well as the construction of additions to existing facilities and minor new facilities. Substantial annual funding is required in order to assure the maintenance and preservation of the Institution's buildings, to provide a safe environment for visitors, staff and collections, and to meet program objectives.

The Institution's buildings and other facilities (other than the Zoo) consist of twelve museum and gallery buildings in Washington, D.C. and New York City housing research and collections management activities and a wide range of exhibitions in the fields of science, history, technology, and art. Also included are the Radiation Biology Laboratory in Rockville, Maryland; the preservation, storage, and air and spacecraft display facility at Suitland, Maryland (also the site of the soon to be constructed Museum Support Center); a conference center near Eldridge, Maryland; centers for biological research, conservation, and education in Panama and on the Chesapeake Bay, near Annapolis, Maryland; an oceanographic research station at Fort Pierce, Florida; a center for astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and an observatory on Mt. Hopkins, near Tucson, Arizona; and