John Martin was absent from 2024’s first Garfield County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) meeting. Commissioner Tom Jankovsky chaired the meeting, which was short.

First thing, Silt resident and library malcontent John Lepkowski was back, carrying a satchel with at least two manga books in it and complaining that the manga series in the Silt Library remains within reach of children. He said the library board has ignored the BOCC’s 2023 resolution about the books. He added that library board president Adrian Rippy-Sheehy’s term expired at the end of December and that she has “hijacked someone else’s term” in order to remain on the board.

Jankovsky said that last year’s resolution was advisory. County attorney Heather Beattie told Lepkowski that the library bylaws are “silent on reappointment.” Jankovsky stated that the only time the BOCC appoints library board members is before their first term. Beattie said that each trustee serves two five-year terms except when appointed to fill an incomplete term.

Garco Library executive director Jamie LaRue told The Sopris Sun in a Jan. 2 email, “According to library bylaws, a trustee, when appointed to fill someone else’s term, may serve two full terms after that.” But, he added that terms have been reduced to three years.

According to the Garfield County Library’s website, Rippy-Sheehy’s current term ends Dec. 31, 2026. “So in 2015, Adrian was appointed to fill the remainder of Bruce Strasinger’s term,” said LaRue. “At that time, terms were five years. So her partial term ended in 2018. She then began her first full term of another five years, expiring at the end of 2023.”

Between 2018 and 2023, the board voted to reduce terms to three years, which is why Rippy-Sheehy’s current term ends in 2026. “She didn’t steal anybody’s term,” explained LaRue. “It’s all in accordance with our bylaws.”

At Tuesday’s meeting, Lepkowski pulled two manga books from his satchel, stating that he only carries them to “show the doubting Thomases.” He also mentioned that the books in question have an explicit content warning, similar to those in a “porn store.”

“Not that I frequent [porn stores],” he said. “But I went in there and… you have to be 18 and show ID.”

When asked for advice, Commissioner Mike Samson gave Lepkowski the nod to proceed with his quest. “What I would advise you is to continue your education of the residents of Garfield County as to what is happening within the library system,” Samson said. “If you will do research, you will find out that the American Library Association is not a good deal and it is working very hard throughout the United States of America and this state and, evidently, right here in this county to promote such filth and garbage.”

Samson, citing the moral decay of schools and public institutions, also advised Lepkowski to organize a letter-writing campaign to the local newspapers. Lepkowski also wanted to know “who is the would-be sex offender who is ordering these books.” Then, he admitted again that he took all of the manga books out of the library at one point. “It took them three months to catch me,” he said.

Heading into the meeting’s agenda, Samson and Jankovsky approved Samson for possibly the fourth time to the Federal Mineral Lease District Board, the clerk and recorder’s request to change designated ballot drop-box locations and voters service and polling centers for the upcoming elections, and the consent agenda. The BOCC also approved a comment letter to the U.S. Forest Service for the Draft Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for the Thompson Divide Withdrawal, suggesting that the project include methane capture.

The afternoon portion was devoted to a public hearing about a sketch plan review — a sort of feasibility presentation — of Hogback View Estates, a proposed development in the Gabossi Subdivision Exemption, north of Highway 6 & 24 and between the town of New Castle and Canyon Creek. The development would comprise seven lots on 34.7 acres, directly behind Canyon Creek Self-Storage. Concerns include water quantity, quality and storage, traffic and access to and from County Road 138, road grade percentages, among others. Jankovsky and Samson liked the proposal but made no decisions.