NORTH BENNINGTON, Vt. (AP) – The Vermont Land Trust has received a state grant to purchase land next to Lake Paran.

The $248,787 grant received Friday will allow the group to buy 52 acres from two landowners. A third parcel, four acres in size, is being donated by the Sage City Syndicate, a group of businesses interested in improving quality of life in the town.

“Here’s a deal where they bought a piece of land and decided the best thing to do with it was to give it away,” said Donald Campbell, a regional director for the Vermont Land Trust.

The grant comes from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, a nonprofit state-funded agency that disperses money collected from property-transfer taxes in the state.

The group will buy land from Lake Paran park west along the lake’s north shore and up into part of Paran Creek.

Contracts with the land owners have been signed, Campbell said.

“Officially, we’re looking good and we’re on track for a November closing and hopefully a big party if we do,” Campbell said.