CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – Sunday was the second and final day of the Clay County Strawberry Festival over at the Clay County Fairgrounds.
“It’s a great environment for families, for children, for our community, and bringing our country back and keeping it here in Clay County,” said Clay County resident Kim West. “I love it.”
It was the ninth strawberry festival for Kim West.
She’s no stranger to the family-friendly activities on the inside, but she is also no stranger to the heavy traffic that comes with it.
“It is very bad traffic,” West said.
Traffic congestion marred the Strawberry Festival in Clay County Saturday, causing significant delays for attendees and led to closing the main entrance just before 4 p.m.
After frustrations from both festival attendees and local law enforcement, there was a big push for changes heading into day two.
Clay County resident Kimberly Britt, who attended the festival for the first time on Sunday, was ecstatic about going in with her family.
But after hearing about Saturday’s traffic mishaps, she wanted to be in line as early as possible.
“We’re like, we better get here early,” Britt said.
The event, which was held at the Clay County Fairgrounds on State Road 16, even led Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook to call the situation “unacceptable” on Saturday.
Just before 4 p.m., the Clay County Sheriff’s Office even resorted to closing the festival’s entry gates due to safety concerns.
For the past few years, we have gone back and forth with the promoter about the security and traffic needs for the Strawberry Festival. A couple of years ago, they literally hired 2 deputies to work the event. Although they have increased the number of off-duty deputies, this is still not acceptable. Our deputies have been out there all day with no breaks. We’ve had to call in on-duty personnel to assist. This is unacceptable...I’m assigning more ‘on duty’ personnel tomorrow.
Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook
In preparations for Sunday, the Clay County Sheriff’s office told News4JAX:
“There are additional deputies that have been assigned to the event and help the traffic flow. We have Sheriff’s Command Staff working as an incident commander for the entire event and logistical support for our deputies working the event is ensuring relief and needed supplies are provided.”
CCSO added that an on-scene member would be collecting data and information about the event for a thorough review and debrief post-festival.
Plus, a PIO was assigned to provide realtime updates.
Sheriff Cook also said that if the festival couldn’t hire enough staff for a full and comprehensive traffic plan, CCSO would not support it, noting that taxpayers should not have to pay for a private vendor event.
