Was Urine Poured On Pitcher’s Mound?

Chardon Schools is investigating an anonymous tip regarding suspicious activity on the community pitcher’s mound used by the high school baseball team.

The district took quick action to mitigate any potential health risks following last week’s tip that urine had been poured on the pitcher’s mound, Superintendent Joseph Bergant said.

“It was brought to my attention by an anonymous caller that apparently there was some urine that was poured on the pitcher’s mound and I called the Geauga County health department immediately — even before we investigated, even before we called anybody else — and said, is there a process to disinfect it, if indeed it truly happened. We don’t know if it did or not,” Bergant said.

Geauga County Health Commissioner Robert K. Weisdack said he also had heard the allegations. His recommendation to Bergant was to disinfect the pitchers mound once in the morning and once in the afternoon with a solution of 50 percent bleach to 50 percent water.

Chardon maintenance workers then were pulled from their regular jobs to apply a diluted bleach solution to the pitcher’s mound in question, disinfecting it twice a day over three days, Bergant said.

Bergant said at this point the allegations are “hearsay” and have not been proven one way or the other. However, they were “just bizarre enough” that he wanted to be sure the district erred on the side of caution.

“It’s hard to get people to come forward and say, yes it happened, or yes I saw it,” Bergant said. “… If it did happen, it certainly was poor judgement on somebody’s part.”

If indeed the incident occurred, then it does pose some health risk, Weisdack said. However, the extent of the risk depends on a number of factors, including how much of the liquid may have been dumped and how soon after that the field was used for game play or practice.

Sunlight would kill some of the bacteria and urine has been known in some extreme cases to serve as a disinfectant, Weisdack said. However, the substance still carries bodily waste and isn’t sanitary, he said.

Although the anonymous allegations claimed the incident represents a long-standing tradition, neither Weisdack nor Bergant said they had heard of such a practice before last week.

Weisdack is confident the situation has been dealt with but said if it does indeed represent a tradition, “that tradition is going to stop.”

“The health district certainly is not going to tolerate it. I made that quite clear,” Weisdack said.

Chardon High School Athletic Director Doug Snyder and varsity baseball coach Greg Fronk were not immediately available for comment Tuesday.