The Town of Bristol was recently awarded $197,500 from the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) as part of their Open Space grant program, which was part of more than $2.7 million in grants awarded throughout Rhode Island stemming from bond funds approved by voters in 2016 and 2018 to preserve open space across the state.

Bristol applied for grant funding as part of a plan to purchase a little over seven acres of land that abuts the Perry-Tavares tract already owned by the town — which currently provides about 110 acres of open space and walking trails nestled between Metacom Avenue and Route 114 near the Warren town line, north of Tupelo Street.

According to Bristol Principal Planner and Zoning Officer, Ed Tanner, the next step for the town is to get a land appraiser to survey the land and then make an amicable deal with the current private property owner — ELJ Incorporated.

“We talked to the property owners ahead of time to see if they were interested and got their approval to apply,” Tanner said. “Now we need to do an assessment and work with property owners to come up with a price we can all agree on.”

Tanner said that the grant is structured to provide about 50 percent of the cost for acquisition of the property, which includes the land survey. He estimated that survey could happen within a couple months.

The parcel currently has a house on the east side, but Tanner said the plan would be to subdivide the property so that residence can remain undisturbed. All existing access points for the walking trails would remain the same, Tanner said.

“It’s been on the town’s comprehensive plan for many years to preserve that area,” Tanner said. “This is sort of the last sizable piece connected to it and the town is looking to preserve that.”