Inverness dismisses Cootertober concerns

By John Labriola - The Inverness City Council will hold its final meeting before the Nov. 5 election tonight.

At its last meeting on Oct. 1, staff presented a video that appeared to dismiss public concerns about the city's monthlong celebration of the occult in October. The video depicted Cootertober as "family-friendly" despite events like the Vampire Ball and the Vampire Pub Crawl that encourage residents to dress up like vampires for a night of hard drinking. 

Last year, the city's weekend-long Cooterfest, which featured turtle races and a music festival, was transformed into a monthlong celebration of Halloween, including the conversion of the Old Courthouse into a haunted house that falsifies Citrus County history by suggesting that a witch trial at the courthouse resulted in the building burning down. 

The city has awarded a $74,000 contract to Twistid Arts Initiative to organize the events and promote Cootertober on social media. The online advertising, some of which has gone viral, focuses on the macabre elements of the monthlong festivities. Twistid Arts Initiative Executive Director Elisha Belden, who recently received a Cooter Kudos award from Mayor Bob Plaisted for organizing Cootertober, declared herself a witch in an October 2019 Facebook post. 

"If you're new to my page, you'll discover that I'm a newly 'out' witch and that the hubby and I are slowly getting comfortable with our role in household craft," Belden posted. "I've always been interested in the craft - been slightly obsessed with it since I was younger, to be honest. But, as a confident adult, I'm learning to actually act upon my obsession rather than merely absorb it." 

Her post went on to discuss her purchase of "a bag of animal bones" from "a wiccan store on Etsy" to create "little vials of bones and moss to display on an alter [sic] and in our oddities curio cabinet."

Council President Jacquie Hepfer rejected the idea that Cootertober promotes evil, both at the last city council meeting and again at the recent candidate forum at Valerie Theater. 

"It's nothing to with indoctrination, demonology," she said. "Everything is what you make it. If you see evil, you're going to find evil." 

Hepfer said people who aren't interested in the events shouldn't attend, adding that Cootertober is an example of Inverness' motto of "Small Town Done Right." 

The council will meet tonight (Oct. 15) at 5:30 p.m. at Inverness City Hall, 212 W Main St, Inverness, FL 34450.

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