Weld Said with Mary Metzger | A Greeley Free Press Podcast

What does growth with a community look like? And what happens when residents feel it’s being done to them instead?

On this episode of Weld Said, host Mary Metzger and producer Jennifer Andrews talk with Greeley community members Rhonda Solis and Rachel Burdan about why Rhonda and Rachel are voting NO on Ballot Measure 2F.

After two petitions and a public vote, the debate over Catalyst continues to divide the city. Rhonda and Rachel discuss their concerns about the proposed 40-year tax, financial risk, and the inclusion of parks and other public facilities alongside Catalyst. The conversation also explores what could happen if 2F fails and what a different path forward might look like.

It’s a conversation about taxes and budgets, but also about trust, working people, and giving residents a meaningful voice in Greeley’s future.

We will also be inviting others who support 2F to share another perspective in a future episode. We want listeners to hear the reasoning behind both positions, ask questions, and make their own informed decisions.

We hope you enjoy this timely conversation.

Too busy for a full podcast? Check out selected short clips from this episode and others on YouTube »

Former City of Greeley Museums manager Chris Bowles joins Mary to talk about the uncertain future of Greeley’s museums and what could be lost if the city changes how they are funded and operated.

Chris describes the budget cuts his team faced, the city’s proposal to explore moving the museums to a nonprofit, and why he believes a cost recovery model failed to capture much of their work. Museums care for collections and historic buildings, teach local history, and give people a place to see themselves in the story of their community. He also explains why the museums made general admission free earlier this year.

The conversation moves beyond the budget to the history Chris came to love while working in Greeley - and to the residents who filled council chambers and spoke up for the museums when their future came into question.

Listen to hear Chris’s perspective on what it takes to care for Greeley’s history, and who will do that work in the years ahead.

Want to Learn More About Greeley’s History — and Support the People Who Make them Special?

Visit an exhibit, attend a program, bring someone who’s never been, or share what you learned. Spending time in these places is one way to support the work of the curators, educators, and staff who care for our history.

Explore Greeley’s museums and historic sites:

* Greeley History Museum

* Centennial Village Museum

* Meeker Home Museum

* White-Plumb Farm Learning Center

Check each site’s visiting information before heading out; hours and access vary.

Have a favorite museum memory? Share it in the comments.

A note to listeners: This conversation reflects Chris’s experience and perspective as the former museums manager. We have not independently verified every claim made during the interview. The city may have a different account of its decisions and plans for the museums.

Colorado House District 64 Representative Scott Slaugh joins Mary Metzger for a wide-ranging conversation about the issues affecting Northern Colorado and the experiences that shaped his approach to public service.

Slaugh discusses his upbringing in Milliken, his military service, his work as a home builder and his first year in the Colorado Legislature. The conversation explores housing affordability, metro districts, community benefit agreements, data centers, Flock cameras, government surveillance, crime, transparency and public trust.

Slaugh also explains why he considers himself working class, how he approaches disagreements with people across the political spectrum and why he is running to retain the House District 64 seat.

House District 64 includes western Greeley, Johnstown, Milliken, Berthoud, Mead and surrounding areas in Weld and Larimer counties.

Weld Said shares conversations with the people shaping Greeley and Weld County. An invitation to appear does not constitute an endorsement. The views and factual claims expressed by guests are their own.

Learn more about Representative Scott Slaugh:https://leg.colorado.gov/legislators/scott-slaugh

Subscribe for more conversations about the people, policies and decisions affecting Northern Colorado.

What is undeveloped land worth to us? Who decides how water is used, how wildlife habitat is protected, and what strategies actually make communities safer from wildfire?

In this episode of Weld Said, Mary Metzger talks with Adam Bronstein, Oregon director for Western Watersheds Project and host of the Our Public Lands podcast, about wildfire, water, wildlife, public lands and the competing interests that shape how those resources are managed.

Bronstein discusses fuels-reduction logging, home hardening, defensible space, recreation and the role of money and institutional incentives in land-management decisions. He also talks about why water rights do not necessarily mean healthy rivers, and why open space matters for both people and wildlife.

The conversation also touches on Colorado’s Proposition 137. Bronstein raises concerns about whether funding presented as conservation and wildfire prevention could also support fuels-reduction logging projects he opposes.

Closer to home, the conversation asks what these larger debates mean for Weld County: how we balance growth with open space, how we protect the land and water people depend on, and who gets to shape those decisions.

[ See all highlight clips of this podcast » ]

Eileen Laubacher never expected to run for Congress.

After 34 years in the Navy, retiring as a rear admiral in 2024, she thought the next chapter of her life would look very different. Instead, she found herself watching institutions she had spent much of her life serving change in ways that convinced her she needed to step forward. Now, she is running for Congress in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District.

But this episode of Weld Said is not really a traditional campaign interview.

Mary Metzger and Laubacher talk about service, community, healthcare, housing, rising costs, corruption and the difficulty of getting government to listen to the people it is supposed to serve. They also spend a lot of time talking about something that feels especially important right now: what happens when people stop seeing each other as enemies and start talking to each other again.

The conversation moves from military service and rural hospitals to medical bankruptcy, working families and the growing cost of simply getting by. It also gets personal, including stories about the people who step in when a family is struggling, sometimes with something as simple as a meal, a favor or groceries left anonymously at the door.

Again and again, the conversation comes back to the same idea: most people care about their families, their communities and each other far more than our politics sometimes suggests. We may not agree on everything, but that does not mean we cannot listen, find common ground and help one another.

As Laubacher and Metzger put it near the end of their conversation, we are not alone.

What does community safety look like when law enforcement and the people they serve may experience the same system very differently?

Mary Metzger sits down with Matt Turner, a candidate for Weld County sheriff, for a frank conversation about law enforcement, public trust and the responsibilities that come with the badge.

They talk about Flock cameras and surveillance, ICE and undocumented residents, addiction and fentanyl, officer discretion, mental health, jail operations, accountability, community engagement and the fear that can exist on both sides of an interaction with law enforcement.

Turner also discusses his background in the military and the Weld County Sheriff’s Office, why he is running for sheriff, and some of the changes he would like to make if elected, including community listening groups and greater public engagement.

It is, as Turner points out more than once, a pretty layered conversation.

Weld Said is a Greeley Free Press podcast hosted by Mary Metzger, featuring conversations with the people shaping Greeley and Weld County.See more from Matt Turner on his Facebook page or his campaign website.

Editor’s note: This is a submitted opinion piece. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Greeley Free Press. GFP reviewed factual claims in the submission and reached out to the three candidates specifically named in the piece to give them an opportunity to respond.

By Jenifer Montes

As someone who has been on the front lines in Hudson over the past year, fighting tooth and nail against the Big Horn for-profit ICE detention center, election season is starting to feel like a painfully predictable ritual. Every cycle, a fresh wave of candidates rolls in promising to save us from the extremist nightmares of Gabe Evans, Lauren Boebert, and Steve Reams. They smile for the media, sell their carefully crafted lines, and play up their backgrounds to buy sympathy—positioning themselves as our valiant defenders against the far right. But if they were actually here for us, they wouldn’t just be using our fear of those politicians as a cheap campaign pitch; they’d be standing right here in the trenches.

For a year, grassroots organizers like myself and everyday community members have done the taxing work, holding town halls, scrutinizing municipal codes, and demanding basic accountability from local leaders. Yet when you look around the room at those very local community spaces and council meetings, the candidates who are desperately courting our votes by flashing their anti-extremist credentials are nowhere to be found. Instead, we are left navigating a roster of absentee figures and slick political actors whose commitment to Weld County is just pure theatrics to win votes, leaving us with politicians who are all show and no substance.

Take Manny Rutinel. He’s got the playbook down to a science: leaning heavily on his family’s immigrant background and rolling out a painfully practiced, performative hola just to manufacture instant relatability and score easy political points. Except, the second you need him to actually stand with the communities bearing the brunt of ICE raids, detention expansion, and the looming shadow of the Big Horn concentration camp, the tune shifts real fast. Ask him to set foot in Hudson, and out comes the eternal politician’s excuse: That’s outside his district, or he’s just too busy from his team. Apparently, when a full-blown human rights crisis unfolds right next door, treating district lines like a moral Get Out of Jail Free card is just what passes for leadership nowadays. He’s there for the flashing lights, but when the crowd disperses and you actually need a representative to put their neck on the line, he’s nowhere to be found.

Let’s talk about what’s actually in his district: the notorious Frederick hold room, where human beings—some as young as six years old—have been locked in windowless boxes with no beds or toilets for up to 34 days. And what was Manny’s heroic contribution? He rolled up after hours with a full media crew, filmed himself knocking on locked doors, looked right past the community members standing right there and into the cameras, then ghosted before anyone could ask him for an actual plan. Sure, he wrote up a polite little letter to ICE. Fantastic. But, letters don’t keep kids warm, and we’re the ones still out there watching that horrific hold room to this day with zero support from him.

It’s a recurring comedy of bad optics. Remember the three-week JBS strike? Manny made his grand cameo just long enough to drop off a few boxes of donuts —apparently expecting three thousand starving employees to survive on a pastry crumb— while the community pulled endless shifts handing out actual water and snacks because those workers didn’t have access to a cafeteria.

Try texting Manny for support, whether it’s months in advance or last minute. You’ll be met with crickets and excuses. But you know what never changes? Our town hall, every single month on the first and third Wednesday at 6 p.m. sharp in Hudson. People figure out how to make their way there from all over Colorado, carpooling, recovering from major surgeries, leaning on walkers—like Emma, who literally took a bullet to the foot from a GEO Group employee at the Aurora center. If everyday people can push through physical agony to show up for each other, why can’t the guy with the official title? Oh right: because choreographing TikToks and staging photo-ops doesn’t require getting your hands dirty.

Then there is the race for Weld County Sheriff, featuring independent candidate Fabian Rodriguez, whose official stance on immigration enforcement attempts to play both sides of the fence. Rodriguez states that his office “will follow Colorado law” and will not engage in civil enforcement or target people solely on status, prioritizing violent crime instead. His commitment is fundamentally rooted in operating within the legal status quo, meaning a refusal to take a principled stand against systems like ICE detention facilities operating in our backyard—so long as the paperwork is processed “legally”.

What makes this position sting, at least to me, is how he leans on his own immigrant background as an easy shortcut to earn the trust of the Latino community, offering a warm sense of security while delivering zero actual protection. To me, it feels like a profound betrayal: wrapping yourself in a shared cultural identity just to secure votes, only to fold when it takes courage to push back against a machine like ICE. That isn’t representation—it feels like a betrayal.

The community needs to trust this protection now more than ever. Recently there was a report that exposed a system where local inmates are handed over to ICE and disappear before they even get their day in court—violating due process rights and leaving victims and families with zero answers. When local law enforcement operates as a transport system that makes people vanish into federal custody before a judge ever sees them, how can any immigrant family trust that badge?

ICE isn’t above the law, and with over 50 lives stolen in ICE custody alone, passive compliance is a choice. Local law enforcement has a fundamental duty to stand as a shield for residents, not a revolving door. Working within a broken system isn’t reform; it’s preservation—and true community safety means having the backbone to stand up for basic justice, even when it’s uncomfortable.

Then there is Eileen Laubacher, who spent most of her adult life registered as a Republican before conveniently slapping on a Democrat label when it fit her political ambitions. In my view, she has mastered the art of showing up for photo-ops and waving from parade floats, but goes completely missing when real leadership is required. When a massive detention facility is expected to open right in the very district she’s running to represent, I’d expect someone asking for our votes—especially someone trying to prove she’s a “new” kind of Democrat—to take a stand. Instead, you get dead silence. To me, it just proves that while it’s easy to campaign when all you have to do is smile for the cameras, a fresh coat of party paint doesn’t give you a spine when it’s time to look voters in the eye and address a human-rights crisis in your own backyard.

Every community deserves so much better than elected officials who act like empathy is a favor you have to pull teeth to get. They shouldn’t have to carry the weight of a humanitarian crisis entirely on their own shoulders—sacrificing sleep, emptying their own pockets, and carpooling through physical pain just to keep each other safe while the people with power look the other way.

Honestly, I am so completely exhausted by the endless theater of choosing the lesser of two evils, or being handed the same old bad deal wrapped in a different color. We don’t want the same destructive leadership of Gabe Evans, Lauren Boebert, and Steve Reams under a different brand name—we deserve to actually be heard, to feel safe in our own neighborhoods, and to know we can count on the people we vote to represent us because they didn’t just slap on a fake label when it became politically convenient.

This community deserves real people—not polished brands, not career politicians, and not paper-thin phonies who only show up when there’s a camera crew in sight. We need leaders who actually listen to everyday people, who don’t b******t their way through town halls, and who are genuinely about it from day one.

Real leadership isn’t a curated TikTok video, a polite letter mailed off to an agency operating with total impunity, a calculated silence on detention centers, or a sheriff playing both sides of the fence with the law. It’s showing up when it gets uncomfortable, standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the dirt, and having the guts to draw a hard line.

F**k Donald Trump and every machine that profits off human cages. We must abolish ICE.

It’s time to stop waiting around for absentee saviors and start backing the people who have been in the trenches all along, refusing to look away. Let’s change s**t up, build a community that actually protects its own, and stop settling for anything less than real.

Author Bio: Jenifer Montes is a 34 yr old long-time Weld County resident and organizer who is deeply rooted in the community she calls home. As a proud child of immigrants, she fights alongside local families against political intimidation and systemic oppression at every level, showing up for those without privilege because the work doesn’t stop. Her grassroots advocacy has been featured on the Weld Said with Mary Metzger podcast.

Greeley Free Press reached out to several candidates mentioned in this article and their replies, when provided, are listed below.

Fabian Rodriguez, Independent Candidate for Weld County Sheriff

“I want to make my position on immigration as clear and easy to understand as possible:The Weld County Sheriff’s Office will not stop, arrest, or hold someone simply because we believe they may be undocumented. We will follow Colorado law, the Constitution, and the law enforcement policies of the Sheriff’s Office.

If someone is arrested for a crime and has a criminal case in Weld County, we will work with the District Attorney’s Office to determine the proper next steps. When possible and legally appropriate, we want local criminal cases to be completed here in Weld County. This allows victims and their families to see the case through the court system and ensures that people accused of crimes are held accountable.

There is also an important difference between a criminal warrant and a request from immigration authorities. If a judge has issued a valid criminal warrant, the Sheriff’s Office will follow that warrant. We will not automatically hold someone simply because immigration officials have requested that we do so.

At the end of the day, my position is simple: our job is to protect Weld County, keep people safe, and hold people accountable when they commit crimes. We will focus on criminal behavior, not someone’s immigration status.

I know immigration is an emotional and complicated issue, which is why I want my position to be clear. There should be no confusion about where I stand: we will follow the law, protect victims, prioritize public safety, and treat people fairly regardless of their immigration status.”

Eileen Laubacher, Democratic Candidate for CD 04

Eileen has been open about the role her faith plays in her life and public service. At the heart of that faith is a belief that every person has dignity and deserves to be treated with fairness and compassion. Those values guided her throughout 34 years of service to our country and continue to guide her today.

Eileen has spent significant time listening to voters in this part of the district, including nearly 30 meet-and-greets across Weld and Larimer counties, where she has welcomed any and all questions about where she stands on any issue.

On the proposed Bighorn facility, her position is clear: Hudson deserves a real say in what happens in Hudson. A 1,200-bed detention facility in a town of roughly 1,650 people would fundamentally change the community. Residents deserve a transparent public process and clear answers about the impact on water and sewer systems, roads, law enforcement, emergency services, and first responders before anything moves forward.

[ Short attention span? Pressed for time? We see you! Check out highlights from this episode and others on our YouTube channel. Share the clips you love! ]

There’s a whole wild Greeley happening around us that most of us may have never seen.

Bobcats. Badgers. Coyotes. Bald eagles. Deer. Wild turkeys. And, every once in a while, even a mountain lion, black bear, or moose passing through.

This week on Weld Said, Mary talks with Justin Scharton, manager of Greeley’s Natural Areas and Trails division, about the work happening behind the scenes to protect and restore the natural spaces around us.

Greeley currently has about 2,600 acres of natural areas and roughly 35 miles of trails. But keeping those places healthy involves a lot more than simply leaving the land alone. Justin talks about native habitat restoration, invasive plants, prescribed burns, wildlife cameras, trail maintenance, drought, and the sometimes complicated relationship between development and wildlife habitat.

We also talk about something we loved learning: Greeley has a long-term goal of putting every resident within a 10-minute walk of nature.

That matters not only because nature is beautiful, but because access to the outdoors shouldn’t depend on where you live, how much money you have, or whether you have a car.

And residents don’t have to just enjoy these places. They can help take care of them.

Justin talks about volunteer projects through Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, where community members can help restore habitat, work on trails, plant native vegetation, improve natural areas, and become part of the stewardship of these places.

We also spend some time talking about Greeley’s newest natural area, Arroyos del Sol, nearly 1,000 acres of prairie, bluffs, arroyos, and wildlife habitat between Greeley and Windsor. The property was protected from development and more than doubled Greeley’s protected natural-area acreage when it was acquired.

As Greeley continues to grow, the conversation raises a bigger question: how do we grow without losing the open spaces, wildlife, and landscape that are part of what makes this community feel like home?

And maybe just as importantly: what role can each of us play in taking care of it?

Learn more and get involved

🌿 Greeley Natural Areas & TrailsExplore local natural areas, trails, volunteer opportunities, the Get Outdoors Greeley plan, and other resources:https://greeleyco.gov/natural-areas-and-trails/

🌄 Arroyos del Sol Natural AreaLearn about Greeley’s 978-acre natural area, its wildlife, planning, conservation, and future trails:https://speakupgreeley.com/newest-natural-area

🦉 See wildlife caught on camera at Arroyos del SolTiny ducklings, barn owls, deer, bobcats, and more have turned up on the wildlife cameras:

🥾 Volunteer for Outdoor ColoradoJustin mentions VOC as one of the ways residents can get involved in trail work, habitat restoration, native planting, and other stewardship projects:https://www.voc.org/

🌾 Trust for Public Land: Arroyos del SolMore on how the land was protected and the effort to preserve one of the last large parcels suited for open space in western Greeley:https://www.tpl.org/our-work/arroyos-del-sol

📚 Last Child in the Woods by Richard LouvJustin mentions this book during the conversation about kids, screens, boredom, creativity, and the importance of spending time in nature.https://richardlouv.com/books/last-child/

🐾 What wildlife have YOU seen in Greeley?

We want to know. Which of these have you spotted around town, along the Poudre, or in one of Greeley’s natural areas?

Vote in our poll. And if your favorite local wildlife isn’t listed, tell us about it in the comments. OR drop your favorite Greeley natural area photo in the comments.

Metro districts are all over Northern Colorado. But how many of us really understand how they work, who pays for them, and who benefits?

In this episode of Weld Said, Mary sits down with Mo Dower, a former Berthoud trustee who is now running for Colorado House District 64.

Mo first became involved in local government because of issues affecting her own community. But during her time as a trustee, she says she began running into problems that couldn’t be solved at the town level. Changing them would require changing state law.

One of those issues is housing.

Mo walks us through how metro districts can be used to finance new development, why she believes the system can create additional opportunities for developer profit, and what communities might do differently. She talks about impact fees, development codes, smaller and more attainable homes, corporate ownership of housing, and ways state and local policy could help make growth work better for the people who already live here.

It’s a particularly relevant conversation for Greeley, where questions about growth, affordability, public-private development, and who ultimately benefits from new development have become increasingly important.

Mary and Mo also talk about community benefit agreements, rising rents, wages, corporate landlords, AI in hiring and healthcare, data centers and water, and the role regular citizens can play in changing public policy.

And for Mo, some of this is personal. Her own adult children aren’t sure they’ll ever be able to afford homes here. That’s part of what has motivated her to take what she learned in local government and make a run for the Colorado Statehouse.

Whether you live in House District 64 or not, this conversation offers an interesting look at some of the rules and systems shaping growth across Northern Colorado, and what we might do differently if the goal is to make that growth work for more people.

Learn More:

Colorado House District 64See the current Colorado House district boundaries and interactive map from the Colorado Independent Redistricting Commission:https://redistricting.colorado.gov/content/house-final-approved

Detailed Weld County House District MapsWeld County Clerk and Recorder:https://www.weld.gov/Government/Departments/Clerk-and-Recorder/Elections-Department/Election-Maps

Where Are the Metro Districts?Explore Colorado’s interactive metropolitan district map from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs:https://data.colorado.gov/Local-Aggregation/Metro-Districts-in-Colorado/knbf-ggf2

What Is a Metro District?The NoCo Optimist’s 2020 explainer looks at Greeley’s approval of eight metro districts and explains how these districts can finance infrastructure and levy property taxes:https://www.thenocooptimist.com/news/greeley-city-council-votes-to-approve-a-plan-for-eight-new-metro-districts-thats-a-big-deal-heres-what-it-means

[ Full episode and Short Clips also available on our YouTube channel and on Apple Podcasts shortly after publication ]

This episode goes a little farther from home than Weld Said usually does.

Our conversations are typically rooted pretty firmly in Greeley and Weld County. And this one begins there, with questions about representation, Cascadia, growth, water, development, and the arrival of large data centers in Northern Colorado.

But when Mary sits down with Dr. Andres Guerrero, a longtime Greeley resident, educator, theologian, author, and Harvard graduate, the conversation doesn’t stay within city limits for long.

Guerrero has spent more than eight decades studying, teaching, questioning institutions, and thinking about who has power, whose voices are heard, and whose are too often dismissed.

What begins with his years in seminary and his questions about the role of women in the Catholic Church moves into Chicano history and identity, race and representation, poverty, capitalism, socialism, faith, immigration, homelessness, war, artificial intelligence, environmental responsibility, and the systems that shape people’s lives.

There are strong opinions in this conversation. You may agree with some of them and strongly disagree with others. In fact, we’d be a little surprised if anyone agreed with everything.

But agreement isn’t really the point.

Again and again, Guerrero comes back to something much simpler and perhaps much harder: listening to one another, especially when we disagree.

Along the way, Mary and Andres talk about whether Greeley’s growth is benefiting the people who already live here, the future of water in a growing community, concerns surrounding Cascadia and data centers, the difficulty of escaping poverty, privilege and power, mothers and families, grief and the loss of a child, learning to forgive ourselves for our mistakes, loving our enemies, and whether curiosity, empathy, and connection might help us build bridges across some of the divisions between us.

It is less an interview than two people thinking out loud, following one question wherever it leads.

We don’t resolve every question. We don’t attempt to offer the final word on capitalism, socialism, religion, race, foreign policy, growth, or any of the other enormous subjects that come up.

Instead, we invite you to listen.

And the good news is, you don’t have to agree first.

BOOKS & AUTHORS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• A Chicano Theology by Andrés G. GuerreroGuerrero’s published work on Chicano liberation theology, race, class, religion, land, nonviolence, and the cultural and spiritual significance of Guadalupe and La Raza.

• From Indians to Chicanos by James Diego VigilA history of the Mexican-American experience and the cultural forces that shaped Chicano identity.

• Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane MayerGuerrero recommends Mayer’s investigation of political money, wealthy donors, institutions, and power.

• Paulo FreireFreire’s ideas about oppression, liberation, education, and the danger of oppressed people simply becoming new oppressors come up several times during the conversation.

• Reies López TijerinaGuerrero also discusses Tijerina’s writing and political thought, including ideas he encountered while conducting his own academic research.