Renovations continue at Oatland Island Wildlife Center

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By Karla Redditte - bio | email

SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - There's always something interesting to do or see at Oatland Island Wildlife Center.

And these days you can add construction to the center's main building as the newest featured exhibit.

"It's going to be a wonderful spot for welcoming groups, wonderful new classroom facilities we're going to have in there, updated facilities like restroom facilities and a gift shop and things like that," said the center's director Chris Gentile. "So I think everybody who comes to Oatland regardless of the reason will have reason to use and celebrate this new building."

The building is being prepped to undergo a $5 million facelift.

"The second floor will be all the office space and the first floor will be 100 percent visitor's space like classrooms," said Gentile. "There will be a vet clinic that folks can look through window to see some of the things that we do for modern animal care."

Workers of Choate Construction have started to remove the asbestos and lead paint that had been in the building since it was built back in the 1920s.

Temporary trailers now fill part of the island, only a minor inconvenience until this state-of-the-art facility is complete.

"We're seeing more visitors than ever before to Oatland Island- not just in school groups but in guests that come to walk our animal trail, so we need facilities like what we're doing in order to be able to make sure that their experience is as good as it can possibly be," said Gentile.

This renovation is one of the first projects funded through special local option sales tax or Esplost.