Grand Lake has a new town trustee and, despite his name, he has no ties to Hollywood.

On Nov. 26, the Grand Lake Board of Trustees selected local resident John Michael “Micky” Rourke — no relation to the famous actor — as the town’s newest board member. Rourke was selected from a field of three prospective candidates who each expressed interest in being appointed to fill a recently vacated seat on the board.

Also applying for the seat were Luke McDonald and Tom Weydert.

Rourke, who goes by Micky, said he comes to his new position in government with “no agendas” and having made “no promises.”

“After 20 years in Grand Lake of listening to everybody whine about the trustees, I thought this would be a good opportunity to find out what everybody whines about,” Rourke said.

The new trustee did not mince words when explaining his feelings about public perceptions of local governmental decisions adding, “I really don’t care what anybody says; I will do what I think is right.”

Rourke and his wife, Christina, whose family first moved to Grand County in the early 1900s, moved to Grand Lake from St. Croix, part of the U.S. Virgin Islands, roughly 20 years ago. Rourke is currently on sabbatical from his job with the Grand Lake Rec District and added that he is in a transitional period between working life and retirement. For almost a decade, Rourke has been a member of Grand Lake’s Board of Adjustments.

Rourke was selected by the Grand Lake board to fill a seat vacated by Andy Murphy who resigned from his position in early October. Murphy, who was elected as a Grand Lake trustee earlier this year, stepped down from his seat on the board citing the possibility of future conflicts of interest. Murphy explained he owns a piece of property in Grand Lake that he hopes to sell or lease for the town’s future Space to Create project.

According to Murphy, the Grand Lake town board is the entity that will select the property that will be used for the Space to Create project. Because he plans to actively promote the property to the town board as a possible location for Space to Create, Murphy felt his resignation was warranted.