CINCINNATI -- Some senior residents of an apartment building are saying that a broken elevator is keeping them inside.
The elevator at Center Hill Terrace Apartments on North Bend Road broke last week. It's a 55-and-up building.
A sign on the elevator states it could be back in service by Labor Day weekend. But first, a "major repair" is needed. The maintenance supervisor, Jim Weiss, said workers have to basically rebuild the elevator due to a "catastrophic" problem.
It wasn't immediately clear what recourse upper floor residents — like Kia Sanders' 88-year-old grandma — have in the meantime.
"There's no excuse for an elevator to be out a month in a senior building," she said. "There's only one elevator, so with it being out, you have to take the stairs. What if something major occurs? What if my grandma calls and is sick, or she can't breathe or anything?"
Weiss said everyone who signs a lease in the building knows they have to be able to use the stairs in the event of an emergency like a fire.
That's not the answer Sanders and her grandma want to hear.
"The mail's on the first floor, the laundry's in the basement and the parking lot, as you can see, is the first floor ... It's like they're being held hostage in their apartments," Sanders said.
