The Mount Vernon city council also approved penning a letter of support for the interurban trail project.

The interurban trail is a project the City of Mount Vernon has been working on the east end of the trail (connecting to the west end of the City of Mount Vernon), with plans to work it’s way to Irish Lane.

“We’re almost halfway there with that trail,” mayor Tom Wieseler said.

At that point, the city may look at creating a portion of trail that will head south and connect to Palisades-Kepler State Park.

“We have some landowners at that portion of the trail who are very amenable to that,” Wieseler said.

The city will also be waiting for Cedar Rapids and the Linn County Trails Association to work on the west end of the project in the next few years.

Council members Scott Rose and Craig Engel said they have heard nothing but positive comments on the trail project at
this time.

That’s a difference for when a similar trail was considered in the 1980s, when there was more pushback.

Rose said he compares this to another project that took decades to bee finished, the Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center.

“My mother was on the first committee for that community center who put a lot of energy into it and it eventually lapsed until Ed Sauter came and pushed for the project again,” Rose said. “None of these projects ever happen as quickly as we hope, we just have to trust they continue to move
forward.”

The council noted the economic impact a bike trail will have for the community, noting the trail connecting Solon and Ely has done wonders for the economies of both communities.