EATONVILLE, Fla. — What happens when a town needs millions of dollars for community projects? They ask for it, which is what the town of Eatonville is asking Orange County for.

The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community has filled out a proposal requesting $87.9 million.

Executive Director N.Y. Nathiri says the town has been working on the project since 2001.

“It’s a complex that includes the Hurston Museum, that includes a conference meeting space that would accommodate up to a thousand people, and the Zora community arts, lab and learning center,” said Nathiri.

The potential funds for the project are held by Orange County, which collected the money from tourism tax dollars.

The project, if approved, would be built on land currently tied up in a legal battle with the Orange County School Board. 

“It’s in the hands of the attorneys, so I don’t really want to talk about it,” said Nathiri.

Orange County’s Tourist Development Advisory Task Force met on Friday to determine who might get some of the $3 billion collected from the county’s tourist tax fund.

Eatonville is not the only place eyeing those tax dollars.

Many area businesses, including the Amway Center, the Dr. Phillips center and even a proposed baseball stadium, are requesting those tax dollars as well. Officials say more than 50 proposals have been submitted to the task force to request funding.

Eatonville is known as one of the first self-governing African American communities in the U.S.

Every year they hold their signature event known as Zora, a festival celebrating arts and honoring the most significant collector and interpreter of Southern African American culture, Zora Neale Hurston. 

Nathiri says Zora and Eatonville’s rich literary history has made the town a place people seek out.

“We know what it takes," she said. "We have demonstrated that Eatonville is a destination."

The task force has not yet announced which projects will receiving funding.