Mariel Reynolds, of Kansas City, Mo., hangs upside down, suspended above New Hampshire St. in front of the Lawrence Arts Center, as she performs with the aerial performance group Voler - Thieves of Flight while spectators watch as part of the annual Lawrence Busker Festival, Sunday, May 31, 2015.

After gaining City Commission approval Tuesday, the city will soon solicit applications for its new $150,000 grant program designed to make Lawrence more of a tourist town.

The city set aside $150,000 in transient guest tax dollars in the 2016 budget to create a grant program to fund events such as the Free State Festival and the Lawrence Busker Festival — events or activities that enhance Lawrence’s character and generate more sales tax and transient guest tax revenue for the city. Transient guest tax is the 6 percent tax charged on all overnight hotel stays in Lawrence.

The City Commission unanimously approved guidelines Tuesday that will govern how the funds are distributed.

“Collaboration between the city and organizations that create events like this is really important,” said Megan Gilliland, spokesman for the city and interim director of Lawrence’s convention and visitors bureau, eXplore Lawrence.

The need for the grant program was felt in September, when the Lawrence Arts Center requested $100,000 from the city to fund 25 percent of the 2016 Free State Festival, which organizers said might not be held without the city contribution.

After lengthy debate, commissioners voted to contribute $60,000. The Arts Center has since announced that the festival would still be held this year.

Organizers of the Free State Festival indicated at the September meeting that they would also apply for funds through this new grant program.

But on Tuesday, Vice Mayor Leslie Soden suggested the city add in a caveat that organizations seek no more than 25 percent of their event’s overall budget from the grant program and other city sources. The guidelines had read that no more than 25 percent of the event’s budget be requested only from the grant program.

“My concern is, I want to make sure some kind of event is funded in one part of the budget and now it’s going to get funding in another part of the budget,” Soden said. “It sounds like double-dipping, so I don’t really think that’s fair. It should be an either-or thing.”

The guidelines approved Tuesday calls for a seven-member advisory board to decide twice per year — once in February and once in October — what programs and events to fund. The board would take their recommendations to the City Commission for final approval.

Gilliland said she would arrange a meeting for Feb. 18 with people interested in applying for a grant in the program’s first cycle. Applications will be due March 3, and the advisory board is expected to make its recommendations to the City Commission on March 29.

The advisory board would be created and appointed at the Feb. 16 City Commission meeting. It would comprise two representatives from the hotel industry, someone from the Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission, a board member of eXplore Lawrence, two community members and a city commissioner.

In other business:

• First Baptist Church presented the commission with a $1,024 gift to go in the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

• Interim City Manager Diane Stoddard informed the commission that Lawrence’s wage floor increased from $12.56 in 2015 to $12.60 this year. Companies must pay employees the wage floor, which is 130 percent of the federal poverty threshold for a family of three, to be qualified to receive tax abatements from the city.

• Stoddard told commissioners they’d soon see a request from the Parks and Recreation Department for additional funding this year to create three or four staff positions to help with the anticipated Emerald Ash Borer infestation.

• Commissioners unanimously approved the city contracting with GreenPlay LLC for $69,500 to update the Parks and Recreation Department’s 10-year master plan. Commissioner Lisa Larsen will gather stakeholders to serve on the steering committee that will oversee the update.

• Commissioners met in a closed executive session for 30 minutes to consult with attorneys for undisclosed reasons.