Sober house
the medications would be stored in a lockbox, the four “house managers” would be responsible for the keys, alongside Rios and his wife. There would be no certification required to manage those medications.
“How are you administering drugs, if people are in and out of the house, and you only have one, one or two keys?” Solt asked.
Rios explained about medication times: “You would have medication times, so you would have like 9 a.m., 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. And each manager would take responsibility.”
When public comment came, it was a steady flow of opposition, mostly from residents of the area.
“So basically, my objection isn’t to the intention, no matter how good it is, it’s the location,” said resident Michael Bodnar. “What’s being asked of us here today is to put our faith in an unregulated facility that is going to be run by an individual who, under his own testimony, indicated he has a … criminal past.”
Rios was questioned about his credibility to run such a facility because he had a previous DUI case.
Dale Baumann added, “In the past, even with the previous owners of the facility, there was medical paraphernalia and everything found even on the school grounds at the time … I also took notice of them doing construction on the facility without proper permits, and so forth. I think just for those cracks alone, they should be turned down for this facility and find somewhere else to put it, simple as that.”
However, one final comment came from one of Rios’ recovery house residents, Jennifer Ciarrocchi.
“I just want to speak as an addict and in recovery as someone that lived in one of Jeremy’s recovery houses. I had rules, I had regulations, I had a curfew,” she said. “I had, you know, a structure that I needed in my life. I’ve actually moved on to a sober house that I manage, and I’m 18 months clean. I do understand the whole being next to the school. That house that I live in now we are next to school, we have no issues or problems because there are rules and regulations instilled in our houses that we have to follow that I think is very important.”
Thomas Dinkelacker, the Zoning Hearing Board solicitor, said that closing remarks by all parties, along with final public comment, would be held at the final hearing on Feb. 14.