Friday’s (May 9) edition of the Free Press carried a story on the front page about the Old Spanish Trail and the proposed development on Orchard Mesa that would no doubt put an end to it as an actual hiking-biking-equestrian access to a splendid area along the Gunnison River on the south end of Grand Junction.

We learned that Mark Strodtman, who wants initially to develop 17 acres, and who owns an additional 361 acres for which we can safely assume he has similar plans, is nowhere to be found. Authorities in Weld County, where Mr. Strodtman is under indictment on a number of charges in connection with a housing development he promoted there, suspect he may have gone to Mexico. Perhaps they can add “attempting to evade prosecution” to the lengthy list of offenses for which he has to answer.

In court, should he ever happen to show up, he will be presumed innocent until proven guilty, but the rest of us are free to draw our own conclusions, and it would seem he is the poster child for the sort of feeding frenzy that has taken place in the housing market in the last decade. As a result of this free-for-all, the credit markets are in a shambles, millions face foreclosure and bankruptcy, and our economy on the ropes. As economic conditions get worse, and they surely will, it is not difficult to imagine the sort of fiasco this development will turn into: an eyesore of half completed, deteriorating houses on the edge of the city, where we once had open space and a view of the Uncompahgre Plateau. When Mr. Strodtman’s petition for annexation of his property reaches the City Council, it should be denied. Doing so would go a long way toward preserving the Old Spanish Trail and the adjoining Gunnison Bluffs Trail for our community to enjoy in the years to come.