Tenets say attempts at safety scarce
By Anthony Kirchner
Staff Reporter

Sarah Bledsoe said it’s nice to finally see light outside of her Bellaire Condominium after months of living in the shadows.

Bledsoe, a junior nursing major, lives in the same complex where a TCU student was sexually assaulted Monday afternoon.

Hemi Ahluwalia/SKIFF STAFF Adrian Garcia replaces broken and burned out lights at Bellaire Condominiums. This comes two days after a student was assaulted in her apartment.

Steve Smith, manager of the Homeowner’s Association at Bellaire Condominiums, and two workers replaced broken and burned out lights throughout the complex Wednesday evening.

“We come out here every month to check on the lights,” said Smith, who is not a resident of the complex.

But Bledsoe and several other residents said they have never seen anyone replace lights at the condos.

“We’ve been without a front porch light since last December,” Bledsoe said. “That’s over 13 months ago.”

Smith said, “That’s all news to me,” when again asked about the last time lights were replaced. “These lights get replaced all the time,” he said.

Catalina Saldana, a senior psychology major and Bellaire resident, came outside as lights were being replaced and said thank you to one worker for finally fixing the lights.

When asked about security at Bellaire Condominiums, Bledsoe and her roommates complained about no lighting, non-working locks, and lack of security guards at the complex.

“I just don’t feel safe at my apartment anymore,” Bledsoe said. “We pay so much money to live here. Where is this money going?”

In addition to lights being replaced, fliers were put on every door at Bellaire Condominiums alerting residents about a Hispanic male attempting to gain access to units on the property.

Smith said the Homeowner’s Association approaches him whenever they want something done at the complex.

“The association wanted us to put up fliers so the residents would be careful,” Smith said.

As of Wednesday night, however, no fliers had been put up at the complex identifying the incident as a sexual assault.

“I do what the association tells me to do, and they haven’t told me to do anything else about this situation,” Smith said.

Off-duty police officers have been and will continue to patrol the complex every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night for years, Smith said. It will be up to the Homeowner’s Association if off-duty police officers will intensify their patrolling now, he said No members of the Homeowner’s Association at the Bellaire Condominiums could be contacted.

Anthony Kirchner
a.l.kirchner@student.tcu.edu

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