The opening night of the Great American Cooter Festival is being moved because of a spat between the city of Inverness and Citrus County officials.
All three days of the Oct. 23-25 event event will be at Liberty Park on N. Apopka Avenue rather than part of the event taking place on the grounds of the historic downtown courthouse.
Typically, opening night includes a big kickoff downtown, and the festivities switch to the park on the remaining two days. But city organizers objected to the county's restrictions on temporary tents, stages and stands on the courthouse grounds, according to the Citrus County Chronicle.
City Manager Frank DiGiovanni told the Chronicle more than a dozen downtown businesses will lose "tens of thousands of dollars" because of the switch. The Chronicle noted that the restrictions have since been softened, but the changes were made too late for planning purposes.
County Commissioner Ron Kitchen told the Chronicle the city should have called county staffers to try and work something out before canceling the downtown kickoff.