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Silt resident urges Garfield County trustees to review library placement of explicit book
Summary
John Lipkowski, a Silt resident, told the Garfield County Board of County Commissioners that a book in the public library contains scenes he considers obscene and said children have accessed adult materials; commissioners advised he take the concern to the Library Board and noted the county’s limited authority.
John Lipkowski, introduced himself to the Garfield County Board of County Commissioners on Jan. 20 as a resident of Silt and urged officials to press the county’s Library Board to address what he described as an obscene book available in the public library. “My name is John Lipkowski, and I’m a resident of Silt, Colorado,” he said, and later told the panel he believed a book titled Boys included explicit scenes that were inappropriate for children.
Lipkowski said he had raised the issue with the library director and received a written response that no action would be taken. He told the Board that, in his view, children as young as 11 or 12 can see and access adult materials because of sightlines between the adult section and the circulation desk. He proposed clearer shelf placement, signage marking adult materials, and an age‑restriction that would make adult materials physically visible to the desk: “What I’d like to see is just a bookshelf in view of the person at the desk. It says adult must be 18 to take these books out,” he said.
County counsel and commissioners responded that the Board’s formal authority over library operations is limited to appointing trustees. An attorney present cautioned that county legal staff cannot provide private legal advice to citizens at the dais and recommended Lipkowski present his materials to the Library Board for formal consideration. The county attorney and commissioners encouraged him to pursue that avenue and noted the recent change on the Library Board could affect future review.
The Board did not take formal action on the request during the Jan. 20 meeting; officials directed the resident to the Library Board and advised that the county’s role is limited to trustee appointments.
The next procedural step is for Lipkowski to present his documentation to the Library Board, where the library’s collection and access policies would be considered by trustees, not by the Board of County Commissioners.
