BOCC: We Are Now a Non-Sanctuary County!
(Local Lib Doesn’t Like That.)
Plus: Anti Porn Internet Resolution Passed

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary

The March 27, 2024 Custer County Board of County Commissioners’ (BOCC) regular meeting got into some hot topic political issues, and we are happy to report, that the “good guys” won to the weeping angst of the County’s political left. The meeting was at the Commissioners lavishly appointed throne room across from the courthouse. All three Commissioners were in attendance: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp.
In Commissioner Items, Canda reported that the equipment for the TV towers has arrived and the contractor is testing it. Epp noted that the County’s accounting system provider, CIC, will be training our troops on various dates in April.
In New Business, the company that the BOCC hired to fix our audit and accounting issues, Redlands Accounting, gave a report via Zoom. Lisa Hemann, owner, reported that she was on site last week and was working on the audit preparation. She said she hopes to finish the audit prep work by April 30th and then hand that over to the County’s auditor. Epp said that it takes our auditor about 60 days to process the stuff so we should be getting the report by July 1st (which is months earlier than last year). Epp said Finance is still working on the credit card fiasco.
Next, the West Custer County Library crew gave their annual report. They said they had a “huge uptick in everything” in 2023. They noted that the library had around 2,600 card holders with about 2,000 being active.
Hot Topic Number One was next on the Agenda: Resolution 24-04, Prioritizing County Resources. (This is the vanilla verbiage for the County Declaring it is a Non-Sanctuary County for Illegal Aliens.) The County Attorney had prepared the Resolution based on various other Colorado ones including versions from Fremont County and the Town of Silver Cliff. Day read the Resolution to the peasants attending. Here are some tidbits: we have limited resources, those must be prioritized for the citizens of Custer County,
we are worried about the millions of illegals in the country and especially about the mob up in Denver, the County lacks the human services, public health ability, law enforcement and infrastructure to handle any illegals, the
current administration in D.C. has failed to enforce immigration laws, Custer County is unable to financially or physically
accommodate a horde of
illegal invaders. (You get the drift. I wish we could have seen the County Attorney drafting this: he is a big time, state level, democrat who probably loves the invasion. But he did a good job and the right thing.)
After the manifesto was read, Canda commented that the Resolution was based on similar ones from Fremont and El Paso Counties. Canda stated flat out: “We are a non-sanctuary county.” Day got a little wishy washy on this tough stand saying, We need to check our resources….We need to prepare for any type of situation…That snowstorm could have people out in the elements.” (We could be reading those statements wrong, but it sounds like Day is waffling on not spending OUR money on the illegals.) Epp was worried about how to get rid of the aliens if (actually, when) they come here noting “How do we get them to places where they can be provided for.” Canda answered that query with the proper response, “Put them on a bus and take them back. We can’t put them up. I like the Resolution.”
In Public Comment, Citizen Jim Wilde stated what the vast majority of the County believes, “We are under NO obligation to anything to help them at all. Everyone is a criminal. They should be treated as such. They need to be deported immediately. We have to protect our borders and homes.” (Good job, Jim!)
Citizen John VanDoren asked the Commissioners does the Resolution preclude the churches from helping the illegals? He said “We are not looking to let them die on the streets of Custer County.” No real answer from the Commissioners.
Anthony Wheeler, another local, stated, “They don’t belong in the county or our country. We should transport them from the county to some place that wants them.”
Chomping at the bit, our very own dedicated BOCC lib commenter, James Gilbert got his chance to blither-ate on the Resolution. Parsing the document, Gilbert noted that the “whereas’s” in the Resolution implies that the statements are “truthful” but the Resolution had a lot of “whereas’s” that “were not truthful”. He said there was a lot of “data quoted” and there was no way to check the “veracity” of those statements. He said the Resolution “has no force of law”. (We all know that, James. We only do these things to annoy libs like you.) He then went total, blah, blah, blah moaning the latest lib blues. Like knocking Texas for shipping the illegals out of state to lib areas. He finished his beta male whine forcefully with, “The statement that these people are all criminals is a bold face lie.” (Hey, Dr., it is a federal crime to enter this country illegally. But I guess to dems, as we have seen here in Colorado, the criminals are the victims.)
Epp than read a letter from a lady, Darlene Scoles, lamenting that the BOCC is controlled by a “fraction of the citizens” (maybe lady, the Citizens who take the time to get involved in our local politics and know what is going on), the Resolution has “opinions” and not “proven facts” and she wants all this “useless resolution nonsense” stopped.
Finally the vote came. All three Commissioners voted to approve it. (Glory be.)
Resolution 24-05, Removing Pornography from Custer County, was the next Agenda Item. This was Canda’s baby. Canda opened with the latest monthly Liberty Rocks gathering had a guest speaker, Ricky Schroder, who was campaigning across the country for local, county and state governments to enact laws preventing children from accessing porn on the internet. Canda said the key to doing this was to develop a “switch” for computers and other devices that would prevent porn from being accessed on that device. (In fact, Texas recently passed a law prohibiting porn websites from allowing children on to their sites. This caused one of the biggest internet porn sites in the country to shut down all access from Texas. So it can be done.) Canda wants the BOCC to support this Resolution and pursue criminal law remedies in the future. Epp said he supported it.
In Public Comment, Citizen Ann Barthrop read a letter from Citizen Dawn Ramsdell. Dawn wrote that “we don’t want our children at risk. Please vote for these changes.”
Of course, James Gilbert didn’t like the Resolution, “You are overreaching with this Resolution” and, “The County has no legal authority to regulate the internet….so the Resolution is a meaningless statement.” He added, “Don’t try to overreach.” (Some sad comments here, folks. Porn is killing our kids. We have to do something.)
Citizen Rob Canterbury then commented, “This is a good start. We need to make a stand.” Epp then read another part of the Scoles letter to the Commissioners where she commented on this, “Useless Resolution….Liberty Rocks issue du jour….a few people are doing this….” (Yes, ma’am. It’s the Happy Valley Super Secret Squirrels behind all this conservative skullduggery. They’re here but you can’t see them…)
Finally the vote came up to approve Resolution 24-05. All three Commissioners voted to approve it. (One small step…)
And that was that. Another day in the Happy Valley cauldron.