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.



Owner: Car set afire by Smith camp

Hester says that supporters of Mayor Smith had been trying to discredit his business since he hosted a pre-election rally for Ockomon that attracted 4,000 people to Bounce City. Ockomon mentioned Bounce City at political debates before the election and called the business a great job creator. On KrisOckomon.com, there are pictures of Hester and Ockomon at a Bounce City event.

When asked about Hester’s claims against Smith’s supporters, Ockomon said, “I don’t know that guy that well, and I don’t have any comment.”

The cavernous former Kmart is partly filled with giant inflatable structures. The names of former merchandise departments (for example, “housewares”) are painted on the walls. One drywall surface is pocked with holes from baseballs being thrown through it. There are dodge-ball areas, and a football field is painted on the floor among structural columns. On the back wall, “Kris Ockomon — our mayor” is painted in blue letters.

According to Hester, Smith supporters stole a car from Fort Wayne and set it afire behind Bounce City. Hester showed a reporter the spot behind the building where the car allegedly burned. There are burn marks on the ground and broken auto glass, but the building does not appear to have been damaged. Hester said that, before the car was burned, a man approached him and told him that it would be “so easy” to steal a car from Fort Wayne and torch it behind Bounce City. Hester described the man as a Smith supporter.

An arson investigator from the Anderson fire department couldn’t be reached to confirm the incident.



Complaint filed over breast-feeding

A woman says she was kicked out of Bounce City on Nov. 3 for breast-feeding her infant daughter. Heather Wilson, who lives in Ohio but owns a house and has family in Anderson, said she was at Bounce City with her children and her sister’s children when the incident happened.

Wilson says that, after she started feeding her infant, Michelle Hester approached her and put a “dirty” towel over her chest. Wilson says she has filed a complaint with the state Civil Rights Commission.

Commission spokesperson DaMica O’Bryant said this week that no official complaint had been filed against Bounce City. “If they haven’t formalized their complaint, then we wouldn’t have a record of it,” said O’Bryant.

According to Indiana Code 16-35-6-1, breast-feeding is allowed “anywhere the woman has the right to be.”

Wilson says she went back to Bounce City to complain the next day and was called a “retard” by Michelle Hester.

“She was finished (breast-feeding), and she wouldn’t cover up!” said Michelle Hester. “We have no issues with breast-feeding.”



Hester pledges Bounce City safe and clean

Scott Hester says he wants to make Anderson a better place for everyone by creating jobs and entertainment and says he has big plans to open a Disney-scale theme park here. Bounce City is just the beginning.

He pledged that his business is safe and clean — he and his 20 employees clean it all the time, he said. “You can’t have a facility like ours and not clean all the time.”