John Wayne Trail needs preservation

Member of the Tekoa City Council and president of the Tekoa Trail and Trestle Association.

During the final budget conferences of the 2015 legislative session, behind closed doors, Representative Joe Schmick (9th District, Colfax) placed into the capital budget a proviso that took 135 miles of the John Wayne Trail, 6,000 acres of parkland, and gave it away, at no cost, to 200 adjacent property owners. It was a land grab done without any public announcement or input.

When asked later why he made such a move to close the statewide trail forever in the shadow of secrecy rather than the openness o...