By Kathryn Santos-Reed

Residents of W. 6th St., Rio Linda are experiencing serious problems.

A Rehab House has moved into a very nice area of Rio Linda, on West 6th Street. The Pacific Coast Slavic Baptist Church bought the property in a foreclosure auction.

In the beginning there were contractors at the house and they were involved in remodel of the property.  The first information given to the neighboring residents was about a proposed zoo, but not with lions, tigers and bears, but good old chickens, sheep, pigs and your basic farm animals.  The purpose was to educate the Russian children about what life their parents and extended family lived before coming to California.

In theory, it does sound like a plausible learning experience and not too difficult on the residents who have lived there for 20 years or more.

The property comes with a 3 bdrm/3ba home, but part of the remodel was to add an additional 3 bathrooms.  As the neighbors began to speak with the construction people on site, they learned the plan was to house Russians males, between the ages of 19 to 29, who needed drug and alcohol rehabilitation. There are approximately 14 similar facilities in Rio Linda already.

How this went down with Planning is really not known, but Rio Linda/Elverta have a CPAC (Community Planning Advisory Commission) and it has never been brought to CPAC.

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Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan

The residents have learned that a location housing six individuals or less has no obligation to notify the surrounding neighbors of what will take place inside the house or on the property.

Since the property has been taken over, one neighbor with a HUGE warehouse type outbuilding suffered an attempted break-in, but the building was alarmed and it scared away the suspects.  This happened in early July 2011.  Then, in the beginning of November, a crazed, hyped up individual from the property crossed the street, hopped over the secure fencing and attempted to physically kick in the front door.

This occurred sometime after midnight – when the residents were home and probably in bed or on their way. The suspect was screaming and cussing and the property owner retrieved his shotgun and put the suspect on the ground while someone else called the S/O.  When the S/O arrived, they had to tazer the man and then took him to jail.  While he was being held to the ground, waiting for the S/O, he told the residents of the home that he had an AK-47 and he would be coming back and would kill them when he did.   He was released from jail and back at the property across the street the following afternoon shortly after 1:30 PM.

Wednesday evening there will be a community meeting held at the Rio Linda American Legion Hall, 6700 8th Street, at 6:00 PM.

If property owners are going to be forced into using shotguns to subdue someone breaking into their home, this is a bomb and it seems to be ticking.

Several have written to tell me that when they called their County Supervisor, it went something like this; “I contacted Roberta’s office and they’re telling me that Roberta probably can’t make it because they need 3-4 weeks advance notice to get it on her calendar.” Maybe there just haven’t been enough calls to her office, yet.

The second sentence of Roberta MacGlashan’s web page says “As you know, I have been working for years to keep our community strong and safe.”http://www.bos.saccounty.net/District4/default.htm

Please don’t rely on your neighbor to make the call. There is strength in numbers. If you haven’t called, please do so and insist that the Supervisor MacGlashan attend this meeting.

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Born and raised in Rio Linda, a graduate of Rio Linda High School, and a resident for most of the last 50 years. Co-Chair for the Rio Linda Elverta Neighborhood Association, announcer for Rio Linda Knights...

7 replies on “West 6th Street Rehab Facility?”

  1. I am Supervisor MacGlashan’s Chief of Staff, and I will be attending tomorrow evening’s meeting. I apologize for any miscommunication on this matter. I have worked to ensure that representatives will also attend from the Sheriff’s Department, Code Enforcement, and Building Inspection.

    1. Thank you Ted for letting our community know that you will be attending this evenings meeting. The Rio Linda Community Watch Group has conformation that a Sheriff’s Deputy will be in attendance this evening as well. Supervisor MacGlashan is an extremely nice and caring person and I knew that she would send someone in her place to represent her. Again, thank you to our new wonderful supervisor.

  2. i can not believe people are bitching bout
    this … i managed 2 clean and sober
    homes … im 6years 30 days into my own
    recovery … without these facilities so many
    people would be right back out using … THE
    RESIDENTS ARE DRUG TESTED AND HAVE
    CURFUES … its the untreated addicts that we
    need to worry about … let me have a look in
    their medicine cabinets !!!

    1. I don’t believe it’s an issue of existence, or of the need for such a facility.

      It’s about the placement in a rural residential area, and more importantly, the rights of the property owners in the area and the failure of county planning to protect the community from having to bear more than 14 of these businesses in the area.

      My concern is that the Planning Department is not giving the CPAC an opportunity to weigh in on requests that have a significant impact on the community.

      Take note, the marijuana dispensary didn’t come before the CPAC either. In fact, the CPAC is only meeting every other month now, yet clearly there are issues that need to be discussed before them.

    2. Terilyn, I also know a lot about drugs and rehabilitation and I appreciate that you have 6 yrs. and 30 days of clean and sober living. Have you collected all of your chips?

      Did anyone warn you about the living on your sobriety and the pitfalls that can snatch away your clean time before you can count to 10? Perhaps you should re-evaluate why this might be a poor location for drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

      Any time a neighbor is required to use a shotgun to subdue a hyped up, crazed individual – something isn’t working right – maybe it’s the message and maybe it’s the supervision. Our community supports a number of such facilities already and to have someone threaten to come back and kill the neighbors is just too far out there to be in the neighborhood. If you think they belong there, then you haven’t finished all of your steps yet. JMO

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