neal.mcnamara@heraldbulletin.com

The owner of a local recreational facility for youth has been accused of using sand tainted with cat waste in a play pit, and a woman alleges that she was illegally forced from the premises for breast-feeding.

The proprietor of Bounce City, however, says the charges were engineered by supporters of Anderson Mayor Kevin Smith to discredit the business, which opened several months ago.

The owner, Scott Hester, also claims that the mayor’s supporters arranged for a car to be set afire near his business, which is inside a former Kmart department store along 53rd Street. Hester publicly supported Democrat Kris Ockomon, who ran against Smith in the Nov. 6 election. Ockomon won the election and will take office Jan. 1.

“We did not back Kevin Smith in the election, and 80 percent of what we have in a negative manner is from that source,” says Hester.

“It’s absolutely absurd,” said Smith of the accusations. “I find his remarks absolutely absurd and groundless.”

Cat urine in sand

April Mitchell says she discovered cat feces as her 2-year-old daughter was playing in a sand pit at the “fun zone” in Bounce City during a Nov. 3 birthday party. Mitchell says a Bounce City employee cleaned up the waste by scooping it into a plastic bag. Instead of changing the sand, the employee told Mitchell that it would be sprayed with disinfectant, Mitchell said. She was outraged.

Brandon Clidence, an environmental supervisor with the Madison County Board of Health, said that the agency was contacted about the cat waste and sent one of its people to Bounce City to investigate. Cat urine was found in the sand, said Clidence, and he informed Bounce City employees that they would have to clean it up. When Board of Health workers followed up, they again found cat urine.

“The overall goal would be to not have an indoor litter box,” said Clidence. “Common sense says you should probably try to eliminate the problem.”

Clidence says that he advised Bounce City to find the cat and prevent it from living inside the facility. Michelle Hester, Scott’s wife, says the problem has been solved.

“There were no cat prints; there was just cat poop,” she said. “We took out the sand from the pits and built new ones.”

Scott Hester showed a reporter the sand boxes, saying that they were clean and that he had bought out all of the sand at local retailer Menard’s to keep the pits fresh.