A complaint posted to a local Facebook page accusing a local hotel swimming pool of causing illness in their children is unfounded, according to the hotel manager and a report from an Illinois Department of Public Health inspector.
Becki Utenage has managed the AmericInn on the edge of Kewanee for the past six years and said the state inspector spent several hours Wednesday looking over the pool and pool area and found nothing.
“There was no evidence of mold, no nothing,” she said. “All our levels were on point right where they needed to be.”
The AmericInn pool is often rented for special events such as parties and showers, and available most times to the public for open swims. The business has been in Kewanee for 20 years and every month, they get about a hundred swimmers, she said.
“We’ve never had any problems,” she said.
Over the weekend, a complaint made its way around social media and landed on a local private Facebook page that allows users to make posts. Many people utilize the page to advertise businesses or events or ask other users questions such as the best place to get their hair done or available houses to rent.
On Monday, someone shared a post to the page that accused the hotel swimming pool of making their children sick. The post racked up dozens of comments. According to the post, after swimming in the AmericInn pool over the weekend, several children reportedly experienced symptoms such as throat and eye burning, a cough, nasal congestion and nausea. The post stated the children were taken to prompt care and one to the emergency room for breathing issues.
The adult who accompanied the children made a complaint to the hotel, the post read, and returned to the pool the next day to retrieve a sample of the water and make a “video of black mold through the area where the pool is located.”
The post urged people not to take their kids to swim there and the user stated they were reporting the incident to the Henry/Stark County Health Departments. Another user in the comments wrote of a similar experience that weekend during a baby shower.
Utenage said that when she learned of the complaint, she directed her maintenance man to check the area and the water levels. The maintenance man found no issues, she said. She also said that attendees to the baby shower held over the weekend were not authorized to use the pool and were supposed to keep the party confined to the meeting room.
Another birthday party was held there on Sunday, the manager said, and there were no complaints of illness.
Utenage said the state inspector had to drive in from the Peoria area and after a thorough inspection, found nothing. He told Utenage that he would follow up with the people who filed complaints to report his findings.
Utenage said she is frustrated by the social media post. A second post was made to that same Facebook page on Wednesday reporting the clean bill of health from the state inspector, but she wonders how many people saw the complaint and not the follow up post that cleared the hotel of any wrongdoing.
“That makes our business look bad. People want good businesses in town and when they get them, they trash them,” she said.
Utenage said she expects the full report from the state inspector to be released to her on Thursday. The pool is currently open for swimming and party rentals.
