WOODSTOCK - After meeting with representatives of the Mahoosuc Land Trust on Tuesday, selectmen agreed to support the trust's efforts to purchase 644 acres of woodland off Route 26 in Bryant Pond village.

The price is $750,000.

The land is owned by the Buck Family and is southeast of North Pond. It includes heavily wooded terrain surrounded by ledges offering scenic vistas of Bryant Pond and Locke Mills village in Greenwood. Included in the views are North Pond, Round Pond, South Pond, Twitchell Pond and Christopher Lake.

According to Town Manager Vern Maxfield, the plan laid out by the trust is to keep the land wild and use it for recreational activities.

"The land trust is attempting to purchase the land ... and have applied for a grant from Maine Futures. Their plan is to develop hiking trails, open it to snowmobiling during the winters, and develop some camp sites so people can enjoy being out with nature," Maxfield said. "Also, if the purchase should become reality, the town would be asked to chip in some of the purchase price, but how much that would be won't be determined until later. And in the end the town would actually be the official owners of the land and the land trust would maintain it."

Selectmen like the idea and decided to support the plan, at least in philosophy.

The next step is to see how much grant money the trust can get.

In other business, selectmen decided to take up a citizen's request to have the town adopt an English-only policy, and have residents consider the question during the upcoming June referendum.

"We feel we should honor the citizen's request and have this run by the town's attorney," Maxfield said. "He has said we can go ahead with a nonbinding policy without having to worry about any legal ramifications. It would only require anyone who does not speak English to bring their own interpreter when addressing town business. This doesn't sound like an issue that will come up, but with many nonEnglish-speaking people moving into Maine these days, you never can tell."

Finally, the officers for the Fire Department were announced for the coming year. They are Chief Geff Inman, 1st Assistant Ken Koskala, 2nd Assistant Richard Chase, Capt. David Bobby, Lt. Jeff Campbell Sr. and Engineer Chris Hoyt.