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MIDDLETOWN — Residents of Hope House, Middletown's homeless shelter, can sleep a little tighter now that the agency has dealt with a bedbug problem.

An anonymous caller alerted the Middletown Health Department Thursday morning, Sept. 4, that bedbugs had been found at the shelter on 34 S. Main St., said Janay Mourer, a city health inspector.

Hope House confirmed Thursday that exterminators had been at the shelter recently, and that the health department had notified them Thursday, said the Rev. Mitchell Foster, the pastor of Tried Stone Baptist Church and an adviser to Hope House who is running daily operations.

"We've already taken care of it ... we dealt with the issue, and it's under control," Foster said.

Asked when exterminators were at Hope House, Foster said he was "not absolutely sure, but I know the problem is taken care of."

Carla Ealy, a supervising sanitarian for the health department, said she spoke to Foster and was satisfied that the situation was being handled. Foster also said the shelter has ordered new mattresses.

Foster has been running Hope House since former director Dan Hicks departed about four months ago to pursue his longtime goal of being a pastor at a church in Cincinnati. Hicks had been the director since 2006. Foster volunteered to step in when Hicks left.

"We're pretty much running it how we're going to be running it," said Foster, explaining there is no search for a new executive director.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.