- September 12, 2024
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The Palm Coast Historical Society is asking the Palm Coast City Council for a $7,000 increase in grant funding to help pay for its operational costs.
“I'm asking you to please place the emphasis on this organization that it deserves,” society President Kathy Reichard-Ellavsky said. “As one of the fastest growing cities, one of the youngest cities, historic preservation deserves your support.”
The Historical Society has a free museum that depicts the city’s history at James F. Holland Memorial Park and is the “sole curator of the city of Palm Coast’s history,” according to documents from the Aug. 13 meeting documents. Reichard-Ellavsky asked the council to increase the annual grant the society receives from the city from $3,000 to $10,000 for operational costs.
With the exception of its printers and computers, she said, almost all the equipment in the museum is second-hand. As well, the museum needs more personnel, she said, including a docent, museum director and one or two more historians, instead of just relying on its aging volunteers to fill the gaps.
Much of the society’s funding comes from individual donations, too, Reichard-Ellavsky said, not the city’s grant, with some former members who have since died willing funds to the organization. One such bequest of $20,000 was received in 2015, never touched, and is now being used to pay for the museum’s part-time administrator, she said.
The society is also suffering from a lack of new volunteers. With Palm Coast’s population at just under 100,000, the society currently has about 200 members, she said; 25 years ago, with just one-third of that population, it had 100 members.
“This suggests to me that we need a louder megaphone to spread the message that historic preservation is a valuable component of our community,” Reichard-Ellavsky said. "...We ask that you not only vote to increase our funding as part of the city budget, but also promote the Historical Society and museum as a valuable and necessary component of our community."
The council will vote on the increase at its Aug. 27 business meeting.
