Guards back patrolling the projects

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005 | 7:47 a.m.

Floricelis Robles got a scare one late night in October, and it wasn't Halloween.

She was downstairs, puttering in the kitchen. Her three children and husband, Jose, were asleep upstairs.

"Boom! Boom!" She ducked as the floor was covered by glass that had been shattered by one bullet that stuck in the wall above the dining room table and another that hit the kitchen.

The Robles family, after nine years at the North Las Vegas Housing Authority-run public housing project at 1725 Yale St., had seen enough.

Each day seemed less safe, especially after the financially troubled agency pulled security from the area in July to save about $90,000.

The agency later backtracked on that, negotiating an emergency contract to, starting today, put guards back on the premises that, in the absence of security, had turned into a battleground for gangs, housing authority Chief Executive Officer Don England said.

Calls to the police from the project -- located across the street from the authority's offices -- have gone up 14 percent from last year to this year, North Las Vegas Police spokesman Tim Bedwell said .

The calls are about "possible drug dealing, suspicious circumstances, disturbances, family disturbances and trespassing," Bedwell said.

"When they pulled out the private security, the quality-of-life problems started to become more frequent," he said.

For the Robles family, even though the authority has reversed its earlier decision, the last straw was having bullets blast through their windows.

Coincidentally, they're due to move into a house several miles to the east just as security returns to the project. But Jose Robles said that having private guards on the premises several hours a day would not be enough to change his mind about moving.

The move, he said, will mean paying twice as much -- about $1,200 for their new monthly mortgage, compared with the $612 a month they pay in the authority-run project.

The couple earns about $20 a hour in combined salaries, Jose Robles as a casino waiter and Floricelis Robles as a laundress in a business that washes linens for casinos. So the family faces some belt-tightening.

"But it's worth it, feeling like we can let our children out to play without being afraid," said Jose Robles, whose family includes 12- and 9-year-old girls and a 5-year-old boy.

England, meanwhile, said he had not heard of anybody leaving the project's 100 apartments because of fears for their safety.

He said the original decision was made to save money, adding that the authority thought the North Las Vegas Police "would be able to deter the crime."

When it became clear that was not the case, the authority put out an offer for a new security contract in September, but received no bids, he said.

After the authority's board declared an emergency in November, board Chairman and North Las Vegas City Councilman William Robinson recommended a company, and England negotiated a contract with the firm.

The new company, which will cost the authority about $92,000, will not be on the premises around-the-clock, England said.

And despite the return of private guards, tenants play an important role in returning calm to 1725 Yale, he said.

"One of the problems is that oftentimes residents don't call police because they're afraid," he said.

And although he called security a service that is "good and necessary ... but expensive," he said it "would be one of the last ones to cut in the future."

Timothy Pratt can be reached at 259-8828 or at timothy@lasvegassun.com.