Silt resident and library malcontent John Lepkowski was the first to speak at Monday’s Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting, as has been his practice for months. But this time he was full of praise for the BOCC’s recent decisions, including last week’s resolution that Garfield County is not a sanctuary county. “I just picked up the paper today and [Voces Unidas] is protesting [the resolution],” he observed. “If there was no protest, you wouldn’t be doing any good.”
Lepkowski has led the charge against manga books at the Silt Library for over a year. His apparent crusade against the books has morphed into an attack on the library, executive director of the district Jamie LaRue, board president Adrian Rippy-Sheehy and the American Library Association (ALA). Lepkowski has labeled the ALA a communist organization and has demanded that the Silt Library put the manga books, which he considers to be pornographic, behind glass. Minutes from the Dec. 1, 2022 library board meeting in Silt also show that Lepkowski suggested that the books “be shelved higher or burned.”
Lepkowski has admitted to checking out more than 30 of the books to “protect the public.” He has attended BOCC meetings regularly to remind commissioners about the books. And he hasn’t had much pushback at the meetings — the BOCC has generally agreed with him and not many from the public have opposed his comments.
Now, the BOCC has made what he considers to be a wise decision: the Feb. 26 letter informing the library board of trustees that the commissioners intend to take control of the trustee hiring process, beginning with the current opening for the Rifle area. “You’ll get the actual results from the people, the prospects,” he said. “I’d like to see it more balanced because they all seem to be the extreme left.”
Lepkowski stated in February that he has applied for the trustee position. He continued to claim Monday, in a wandering statement about the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791, that the Garfield County library district is wrong about the First Amendment in relation to the manga books.
In other news…
Youthentity requested and received $11,000 for annual support. Executive Director Kirsten Petre McDaniel and Greg Beachy, Career Academy program director, updated the BOCC mainly about the financial literacy, jobs training and Career Academy programs.
The Colorado Department of Transportation also provided updates for Region 3, which includes Garfield and 14 other counties. A brief presentation included information about focus and maintenance priorities, traffic and safety projects and construction projects.
Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario failed again to convince the BOCC to allocate money for new vehicles. “Right now, for me to be able to put a full complement of deputies out there doing the job they need to do and what the community expects,” he said, “I need a couple of extra vehicles to make that happen.”
Vallario asked for $183,000 for two new reserve patrol vehicles, which commissioners Tom Jankovsky and John Martin said was too much. “You’ve got 92 vehicles and you need two more,” repeated Martin. Vallario replied that not all of the 92 vehicles were patrol cars. He made an impassioned case for purchasing new cars, citing how sharing a car slows response time, how more vehicles on the road show a more robust police presence, why deputies trading vehicles won’t work and more. A member of the public also came forward praising the need for sheriff deputies in remote parts of the county.
Jankovsky questioned whether two or more of the six vehicles heading for auction this year had more life in them as patrol vehicles. Vallario reminded the BOCC of a motor pool assessment a few years ago. “There’s a significant amount of safety concerns for utilizing these vehicles after a certain amount of miles,” he explained. “Especially the way they’re run on a regular basis.”
Ultimately, the BOCC and a reluctant sheriff nixed the new cars and settled on getting the older cars in shape as reserve vehicles until the money appears to allow for new purchases.
“What’s the point of coming back?” questioned Vallario. “This is my third attempt to get this information across and show how important it is.” Commissioner Mike Samson was the lone voice in favor of granting Vallario’s request.