JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A former youth counselor for the YMCA was arrested Monday, accused of molesting two girls -- ages 7 and 9.

Daniel Hardie, 26, was arrested a two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation following an investigation that began last May.

In one case, police reports say a 9-year-old girl told her mother her counselor touched her genitals through her clothing two different times -- once reaching into her pants -- while she was riding on a bus to the DuPont YMCA. In a separate incident, a 7-year-old told her parents that someone she knew only as Dan sat her on his lap while riding on the bus and touched her genital area through her clothing, according to the arrest report.

Investigators said the victims were part of program at the DuPont YMCA, and that the children are picked up from school and bused to the YMCA. They said the incidents happened on the bus.

"When you have these types of programs in these types of places, you do have a relative amount of trust that you have to counselors and the people that will be watching over your kids for the time they're here," said Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson.

The YMCA said Hardie worked there for five years, but was fired in August 2007.

"When our YMCA staff first learned of allegations of such behavior, we immediately contacted the authorities and proper agencies and the employee was immediately terminated from the YMCA," the organization said in a statement issued late Monday. "Here at the YMCA of Florida's First Coast, safety is our primary concern. As such, all YMCA staff members who work with children undergo full criminal background checks, reference checks, abuse-prevention training, sign a YMCA Code of Conduct and are prohibited from ever being alone with a child."

"We don’t know if there are more victims or not. We do ask if there are more that have not come forward, to come forward now," Jefferson said.

Hardie was booked into the Duval County Jail and held on $200,006 bond pending a court appearance scheduled Tuesday morning.