Some Garfield County residents, including Rifle resident Trish O’Grady, are drawing attention to the Garfield County Library District (GCPLD) budget, complaining that the library has too much money and that some of it should be returned to taxpayers. “ I think there's some excessive spending in our library budget and the fact that they have this [$20] million set aside that I don't understand,” said O’Grady at the January 6 Garfield County Commissioner (BOCC) meeting. “I have not received a reasonable explanation why they feel they need to have this money and why it can't be returned to the citizens somehow.”
At the January 20 BOCC meeting, the GCPLD’s chief financial officer Kevin Hettler answered that question while presenting the library's 2025 budget to the board. According to Hettler, there's good reason the fund balance for 2025 is a little over $25 million. “We're pretty confident that what we're seeing moving forward is that we will use this money for a rainy day,” he explained. “And we know there will be a rainy day.”
Hettler explained that in 2022, oil and gas valuation spiked due to the conflict in Ukraine, which indicated two more years of revenue from the industry. Simultaneously, he added, the district was setting up remodeling schedules for all library buildings. The district decided to collect the money approved by Garfield County voters through mill levies and use it over time. “There's no way that we could spend the [remodels] in one year. We knew that it would take us probably three to four years to complete the building remodels,” he told the board. “So the board, through the budgeting, elected to collect the revenue as the voters had approved and then reserve it for these projects that will be commencing in 2025.”
Hettler reminded commissioners about the 29% budget cut in 2017 that forced the library to cut hours and staff, and pull back on purchases for the collections. The district, he said, wasn’t ready for it and wants to protect itself against the volatile oil and gas market. “It's been to protect us from the 2017 era and to help us continue to maximize the use of our buildings, make them attractive and proud centers that our public can come in and use,” he said.
He added that a little over $12 million would be the minimum fund balance after the building remodels are finished.
Library district executive director Jamie LaRue spoke to the library’s successes in 2024 and took a few minutes to share his thoughts about events that have occurred over the past few years that he calls ‘bullying’.
“A few years ago now, a small group of local residents, originally John Lipkowski, then Trish O'Grady, began a campaign of misinformation, insults, and threats. They obsessed about books that were never aimed at children and that children didn't use. They lied about what was in the books and sometimes called for their burning,” he said.
“They called library staff and board members, their neighbor, neighbors and fellow church members, their neighbors and fellow church members and parents. They called them pedophiles and groomers. Sometimes they wanted to defund the library, all while saying that 92 to 98 percent of what we did was fine. Why then the anger and name calling and threats?
“I want to make something perfectly clear. When a small group of people starts telling other people, or other people's children, what they cannot read, or what they must now say in public, that's not patriotic. That's bullying. That's the attempt to deny others the liberty guaranteed by our Constitution. But we will not be bullied into breaking the law.
“Here's the truth of the Garfield County Libraries: We are staffed by passionate advocates for learning and community. Every single day we nurture curious children. Every single day we aid parents in their efforts to raise bright, resilient humans who can face the world not with fear but with knowledge.
“We are not in the business of preventing people from reading. We curate our collections. We group them by audience for the folks most likely to be interested in them. We provide programs and suggested reading lists. We guide our
communities to a representative collection of our culture. We help adults become well-informed citizens.
“We are neither a partisan political body nor a religious inquisitor. We are advocates for literacy rooted both in law and an abiding passion for understanding and for our community.
“So,[with] that off my chest, here's hoping that 2025 will be a year of building together and treating each other with more honesty and respect, both for our institutions and for each other.”
There were no comments from the public after the library budget presentation and LaRue’s remarks. The BOCC accepted the library district’s budget.
