A scheduling mix-up on the event calendar for the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds caused some disappointment and anger among local Cub Scouts this week.

The annual Day Camp was scheduled to run Monday through Friday this week. Scouting leaders said they had to cancel the last day of the event after being told by county officials late Wednesday that a county employee had double-booked the fairgrounds.

Megan Helm, associate program director for the Day Camp, said the event allowed about 270 children to participate in a variety of outdoor activities, including BB gun shooting, archery, crafts and outdoor sports.

Helm said it was disappointing to have the camp cut short unexpectedly.

The last-minute change forced organizers to scramble to get as many Scouts as possible to participate in the most popular activities and then to hurriedly take down their equipment Thursday night.

“It was terrifically stressful,” she said. “I made every effort to get all the kids through BBs and archery.”

Craig Weinaug, Douglas County administrator, said a county employee had not realized that the time required for the Scouts to take down their equipment and leave the park would overlap with the next event’s set-up time — in this case, a cat show and a horse show were booked for the fairgrounds this weekend.

“The day that the next event would be setting up and the day that the Scouts would be tearing down is generally not the same day,” Weinaug said.

Regretfully, he said, county employees did not communicate with county leaders before telling the Scouts that the last day of the camp was canceled.

“It was a great failure to communicate,” Weinaug said, and added that if county leaders had been made aware of the problem earlier, a potential solution that satisfied everyone likely could have been found.

Helm said that while she was disappointed with the result, she understood how the situation happened and that mistakes could be made.

“We’re just hoping that it doesn’t happen again,” she said.