SWEETWATER COUNTY — The Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners reappointed two members of the Southwest Counseling Services Board of Trustees Tuesday afternoon after receiving a request not to reappoint them during their prior meeting, while one commissioner openly discussed dissolving the Community Fine Arts Center Board of Trustees because he doesn’t think it’s a necessary body.
The commissioners voted unanimously to reappoint Southwest Counseling Services Board Chairman Kayleen Logan and Treasurer Kristy Kauppi to additional four-year terms. The commissioners voted to appoint former Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County Board of Trustees Chairman Barbara Sowada to a four-year term. The votes serve to deny a public request from an employee of SCS to not re-appoint Logan and Kauppi due to concerns about board transparency. April Thompson, an outgoing SCS board member who was recently appointed to a statewide mental health board, told SweetwaterNOW she disagrees with allegations that the two were not being transparent during their tenue on the board.
No one was appointed to the Community Fine Arts Center Board as no one had applied for appointment to the three-year term. Commissioner Island Richards told the other commissioners he doesn’t see a need for the board to continue functioning, claiming it doesn’t manage money or a budget.
“I’m not even sure it’s legally comprised anymore,” Richards said.
The board is the result of a partnership between Sweetwater County School District No. 1, the Sweetwater County Library System, and the City of Rock Springs. The school district owns the art collection on display at the CFAC, which was originally started by Rock Springs High School teacher Elmer Halseth in 1939 and grew to more than 400 pieces of art. The CFAC is part of the Sweetwater County Library System, one of the county’s organizations not part of the core county offices.
Richards asked if the county attorney’s office could investigate how the board could be dissolved and suggested having discussions with the other two partners on the board.
RJ Pieper, a former resident who previously served on the board, said it does manage funds and serves in an advisory capacity to the library system’s director. He said the board has three funds that are line items in the Sweetwater County Library System Foundation budget. The first fund represents 30 percent of sales coming to the board from the CFAC’s gift shop, the second amount is the Fred Pickett Memorial account used to highlight and support woodworking arts, with the final fund being the regular donations the CFAC receives. Pieper said the general donation fund gets used in a variety of areas.
“We bought art with it, supplies, paid special presenters, just a ton of stuff,” he said.
