RIP to the town complainer

We lost the old grouch this week. And he will be missed.

Jim Szlemko, the self-described town complainer who wrote numerous letters to the editor for this newspaper, passed away September 1 in Helena, Montana. Jim lived in Lovell for some 24 years after moving from Alaska, and he became a community sounding board of sorts.

He would go to coffee, listen to all of the guys complain about various topics, then put pen to paper and send in a letter to the editor. The letters were hand-written, and the older he got, the more difficult it was for our typesetter to interpret his scrawling.

Jim annoyed local officials, because he was persistent, kind of a thorn in the side, constantly calling attention to issues he and/or his coffee buddies believed were important, whether local officials agreed or not, or whether it was felt the issues and perceived solutions were reasonable or not.

Sometimes, he appeared to take credit for projects already in the works, some officials pointed out.

But there’s one thing you could say about Jim: He cared. He cared deeply about his community, and rather than sitting around and merely griping about things, he called attention to issues and perceived problems through his letters – and sometimes by attending town council and other meetings.

He tried to put his money where his mouth was, too, running for both town council and mayor in different elections, albeit unsuccessfully.

Jim believed in the power of the common man, the written word and the newspaper. Having served in the Marines, he believed strongly that a citizen should take an active interest in his or her community and make a difference. He cared about local topics when so many others would only weigh in on national issues.

In his final letter, written in 2022 shortly after his move to Helena, Montana, he wrote that he – “the town complainer, the grumpy old man and pain in the you know what” – was moving on in life. We never received another letter from him.

We miss Jim Szlemko, the old grouch, because he cared, and he wanted what was best for his town. If only we all cared as much about the local state of things in our community as Jim did, we would be better off. He may have been a thorn in the side, but he kept all of us on our toes.

Rest in peace, town complainer.

— David Peck