Palatka commissioners continued a months-long conversation about the future of the Blue Crab Festival and broader city support for community festivals by moving forward with special-events funding guidelines staff presented.

Staff presentation: Reed affairs staff said the city is allocating a $60,000 pool to support events, split as $30,000 for Class A, $20,000 for Class B and $10,000 for Class C events. The guidelines proposed per-event maximums (for example, $3,000 toward a Class A single-day funding, with two days as a cap) and eligibility criteria intended to distribute limited city funds consistently across established local events.

Blue Crab Festival dispute and policy clarification: Commissioners and applicants debated whether the Blue Crab Festival should be treated as a special event open to all applicants or be prioritized for an applicant that applied first after the commission’s prior direction to “turn it back to the community.” Staff said a first-in application had been submitted the day after the commission’s earlier direction and that staff placed the applicant ‘‘on hold’’ until formal guidelines were adopted. Commissioners clarified that the guidelines’ intent is to permit event-based eligibility (the festival itself qualifies) but that the commission could alternatively require applicant-based eligibility (applicant must demonstrate two of three prior years of producing the event). After discussion the commission directed staff to clarify the policy language and adopt the guideline with a statement that established events can qualify even if a new applicant forms to run them; staff said it would add explicit language describing event-based versus applicant-based eligibility and return final language for commission approval.

Fiscal and timeline concerns: Commissioners noted the city reduced direct sponsorship of the Blue Crab in recent years, which reduced sponsorship revenue previously used to defray city expenditures; one commissioner noted the TDC timeline and potential eligibility for tourism development funding could be affected by delay. Staff said new events would be treated differently and that a newly formed applicant would likely need to demonstrate a track record to access certain tiers of funding.

What happens next: Staff will publish clarified funding guidelines, including explicit language describing whether eligibility is event- or applicant-based, and will present final guidelines and funding allocation procedures at a future meeting. Staff also said it would post a retraction or clarifying notice to the city’s social media where a previous application window notice had created confusion about deadlines.