Monday’s Garfield County Commissioner (BOCC) meeting lasted less than an hour. Former commission chair John Martin made a surprise cameo appearance during the morning public comment period, urging the BOCC to seal the Shoshone water right deal. “Today I’m going to let you know that you’re on the threshold of greatness — all three of […]
John Martin
Posted inLocal Government
GarCo Report: O’Grady returns, lobbyist report, Martin still here
A new approach to constraining the Garfield County Library District took the stage during the first Garfield County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) meeting of 2025. Rifle resident Trish O’Grady Zoomed in to direct the BOCC’s attention to the library district’s budget, opining about how the library spends its money, based on information she said she […]
Posted inLocal Government
GarCo Report: Two out of three new Garco Library trustees announced, Martin’s last meeting
“I can see the headlines already,” said Garfield County Commission Chair John Martin at his first BOCC meeting since October and the last meeting of his career. “‘He’s finally gone.’” Martin opened the meeting, thanking everyone for their patience during his absence. He said Nancy, his wife of 56 years, has been dealing with a […]
Posted inLocal Government
GarCo Report: Gloomy budget forecast, elevator woes, new natural gas wells
The Garfield County Commissioners (BOCC) Monday approved the county’s first Chevron natural gas well permit request to drill two wells from an existing pad northwest of De Beque. The pad is remote. No human-inhabited structures are within a mile of it, although it is in the middle of high priority habitat (HPH) for elk winter […]
Posted inLocal Government
MLK Day, lower county assessed values, land use code changes for natural gas operations
The history of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Colorado dates back to 1975 when State Representative Wellington Webb introduced the first of three bills to establish the holiday. For three years, those bills were defeated. In 1979, Representative King Trimble introduced a bill that died in committee. In 1981, Representative Wilma J. Webb […]
Posted inLocal Government
GarCo Report: Condos? In an airplane hangar?
Garfield County Commissioners (BOCC) Monday spent a little over an hour in the morning and maybe a half-hour in the afternoon approving, denying and continuing various items. No one from the public had anything to say about issues not on the agenda. An update from Rural Public Lands County Council lobbyist Robert Weidner from Washington, […]
Posted inLocal Government
New library trustee announcement prompts backlash against the process
It wasn’t the “who” of the Garfield County library board appointment, it was the “how” that prompted several people to air their grievances against the Garfield County Commissioners (BOCC) on Monday, May 6. Library board president Adrian Rippy-Sheehy spoke up after the BOCC announced Myrna Fletchall as the new library trustee. Rippy-Sheehy said her remarks […]
Posted inLocal Government
GarCo Report: Library trustee candidate hammers BOCC about appointment process
Monday’s Garfield County Commissioner (BOCC) meeting, minus Tom Jankovsky, started off as expected with the county libraries as the subject of the open public comment period. Library board trustee candidate Carole O’Brien was first out of the gate, scolding the BOCC for its lack of communication to candidates about the changes to Tuesday’s scheduled special […]
Posted inNews
Commissioners double down on reluctance to aid migrants
The Garfield County Commissioners (BOCC) held their first regular meeting of March at the Garfield County Sheriff Annex outside of Rifle. It was a quick meeting — just over an hour long — with one particularly divisive item on the agenda: a resolution declaring Garfield County as a “non-sanctuary” county.Commissioner Mike Samson began by thanking […]
Posted inNews, Uncategorized
GarCo Report: Growing pains and the strange case of José Belardi
Garfield County Commissioners (BOCC) this week took a look at a 100-year-old Colorado murder case. It all has to do with a requested name change for a place called Dead Mexican Gulch, near the Devil’s Causeway in the Flat Tops Wilderness Area in northern Garfield County. The Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board (CGNAB), which was […]