BETHEL — The Board of Selectmen listened to a presentation from the nonprofit organization the Trust for Public Land on Monday evening at the Town Office.

Diano Circo, project manager of organization, told selectmen that Stag Properties, LLC, of South Paris was looking to sell a parcel it owns in Bethel and is interested in speaking with the town about a possible sale.

“I just wanted to make sure that this is still something that the community is interested in,” Circo said. “Several months ago, you had a conversation with Wolfe Tone about this, and he’s sent me out to talk with the landowners and with people in the area about what they’d like to see from this project.”

Selectman Peter Southam said the town was still interested in the land, since it would “give us another parcel of land with the potential to build a variety of recreational infrastructures and to provide a variety of recreational access to that area.”

“I’ve picked up a lot of different visions over the last several months by talking to people, and from what I can tell, they want to see more trail systems, both motorized and nonmotorized,” Circo told the board. “Once we get a more detailed look at what the community would want to see from the land, we can figure out where the funding might come from.”

Chairman Stan Howe asked Circo how much money the town would have to pay for the land.

“I’m pretty concerned about using public money to pay for the land,” Howe said. “I think we’re committed to looking at this, but I’ve been under the assumption that it’d be mainly private funds that would pay for the land.”

Circo said, “We’re going to do our best to look for federal and state sources, as well as private foundations who wish to donate money. However, I’d love to see the town put forth a little money into the project, just to show them that you’re interested and that they’re not doing this for nothing.”

Circo said the landowner remained interested in the possibility of selling the property to the town, but there was “no paperwork” preventing the landowner from pursing others who may be interested in purchasing the property.

“If someone were to come in tomorrow and say they want to buy it, the landowners could sell it,” Circo said. “However, they do seem interested in continuing the conversation with the town.”

Resident Jared Crockett said he doesn’t want to see the town spending money on something it can’t afford.

“We’re looking at a year where Andover withdrew from the school district, and Newry appears to be on the way out too,” Crockett said. “I don’t want to see us voting on something that could cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“I completely understand,” Circo said. “Everyone wants an answer on what a budget for this project would look like, but it’s really hard to say until the land is appraised and until we figure out what the community wants. There’s a lot of baby steps we need to take before anything else happens.”

Circo said that in the future, he would like to “go out to the local groups, such as snowmobile clubs, mountain bike clubs, and the town’s Conservation Commission, to get in-depth input about what they would want to see if the town were to purchase the land.”

Howe said he wanted Circo to keep in touch with the board, and is “interested to see where the project went from here.”

mdaigle@sunjournal.com

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