- April 16, 2024
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The Hispanic American Festival will not be held in Palm Coast’s Town Center this year. Club board member Carlos Pinto said there were many factors, including high costs from the city.
But, he said, “The biggest factors were (decreasing) attendance and not getting sponsors.”
City costs
City Manager Jim Landon said the city’s costs are fair. Last year’s costs were $1,900; this year the cost was supposed to be $2,485, but the city contributed $1,500 with a cultural arts grant to promote the event.
“To just rent the park, it’s $15,” Landon said. Most of the other costs were a result of the choices of the organization, he added. For example, the club wants a temporary fence installed around portions of Central Park at Town Center. The fence enables the club to charge money to enter. But installing the fence requires a public works crew to work on the fence, and that costs money — more than $800.
Dedicated EMS
The cost most disputed, however, was the city’s requirements to emergency staff on hand throughout the proposed three-day festival. Pinto said that is unnecessary because the county will take care of the emergency coverage for free.
Flagler County spokesman Carl Laundrie confirmed that the county did provide support last year, with a crew from the nearby Station 92 essentially shifting their base of operations from the station to the festival. If the crew gets a call somewhere, it leaves, and there is no county coverage at the festival until the crew returns.
However, Laundrie said, “If the county has to sit there (at the festival) and go nowhere else all day, they have to work out an arrangement.”
According to Palm Coast Mayor Jon Netts, it’s city policy — not ordinance — to require a dedicated emergency crew at a festival at all times when the event is under the hot sun for long periods of time, and when there is alcohol involved.
Palm Coast Fire Chief Mike Beadle said experience shows that there is a need for a dedicated crew at events like this. He said one crew can respond to as many as a half-dozen incidents in two days. By comparison, five crews around the city respond to about 20 calls in two days. (Incidentally, county EMS crews respond to about 40 to 45 calls every two days.)
The implication is if that many calls come from one location, it can stretch the regularly scheduled crews thin, reducing the level of service for the rest of the city. Therefore, the city policy is to have a dedicated crew for a festival.
Duplication of services?
The city’s emergency vehicles are not authorized to transport patients to the hospital, however. They must deliver patients to county vehicles, and the county crew of two then takes over.
Beadle pointed out that Palm Coast crewmembers often assist county vehicles, depending on the severity of the injury. For a cardiac arrest, one person needs to drive, and often two people are needed to assist the patient.
A festival at Town Center is a different story altogether, though, according to Beadle.
“When you get that many people, and traffic in and out, it’s hard to get into the area,” he said. “We usually have our bike team or our golf cart team, so they can get them and take the to the outskirts.” From there, the county takes over.
At a recent City Council meeting, Landon said emergency services were duplicated. Netts has suggested scaling back. Beadle says he can see why some people think it’s a duplication, but he’s been in too many situations where both crews have been needed.
“I’ve been around the department 23 years, and I’ve heard the debate,” Beadle said.
