Maharishi Vedic City developing trail system

MAHARISHI VEDIC CITY — Maharishi Vedic City is taking steps to better connect the town for pedestrians and cyclists through a system of trails.

The city has begun to mow grass trails that connect popular destinations in town such as the Vedic Observatory, the Raj, Rukmapura Park Hotel and a large subdivision called Mandala 1.

The city just applied for a $500,000 grant administered by the Iowa Department of Transportation to create a gravel trail 10-feet wide and more than 7,000 feet long circling Brahmasthan Park. City officials plan to install solar panels along the route which will power lights to illuminate the trail.

On Friday, officials gathered to commemorate the start of the grassy trail system and the DOT trail application that they hope is just the beginning in connecting the various parts of town.

Maharishi Vedic City Mayor Rogers Badgett said the gravel trail will be modeled after the 16-mile Fairfield Loop Trail. In fact, he said the City Council’s long-term vision is to connect these trails in Maharishi Vedic City with the trail system in Fairfield.

“We’d like to figure out a way to hook up and make a really big trail system like some larger cities,” Badgett said. “We want to work together to serve all people in Jefferson County.”

Badgett said he and the City Council hope to use these new trails to attract people to move to Maharishi Vedic City.

“We’re finding that quite a few individuals from across the country, the East Coast and West Coast, want to move here,” Badgett said. “There are so many problems in the big cities, and these people want the peace and quiet of Iowa.”

City Council member Leslee Goldstein said she hopes the new trail will be a tourist attraction because of the solar panels embedded in the road at the four cardinal directions, at the north, south, east and west ends of the path.

A recent addition to the town is a new perennial flower garden with a picnic table in the center of town. Within a few months, the city hopes to have signs up along the grassy trails indicating important buildings and destinations.

City Council member Stellavera Kilcher said there are four or five places on the grassy trails where a bridge is warranted since the trails cross water. She said she’s excited at the prospect of getting people from all over the state to come to Maharishi Vedic City to use its trail system.