WOODSTOCK — Selectmen have some choices to make on traffic and safety improvements in Bryant Pond village, following their receipt this month of a final plan from the Maine Department of Transportation.

MDOT planner Matt Drost presented the plan, crafted by Gorrill Palmer engineering company, which has been in the works for over a year. It includes two phases, one costing $75,000 and largely paid for by the state, and a more comprehensive one that would likely include federal funds.

The improvements would run about a mile along Route 26, starting near Rumford Avenue to the Lakeside Drive intersection.

The first phase calls for widened centerline-area striping that would resemble a flat center island at the bottom of Merrifield Hill, as well as near the library and the intersections of Lake and Pine Point roads. The striping is designed to push oncoming vehicles apart.

Additional traffic signs are also proposed.

Drost said that due to the recent road reconstruction in the village area, there is a five-year moratorium on longer term roadway infrastructure improvements.

The longer term plan proposes extending sidewalks, adding parking, adding a pedestrian crossing and bicycle accommodations, as well as planting trees. All of them would also provide a clearer signal to drivers that they are entering a village area. Improvements to the layout and function of “Telephone Park” are also included. The park features a 14-foot tall candlestick phone to commemorate the town having the last hand-crank phone system in the country, which ceased operations in 1983.

An option for a small park in front of the library was proposed.

Drost said selectmen can study the interim plans and choose which features they want to add. The striping would take place as part of the next planned Route 26 restriping project, while the sign portion would likely be contracted out, he said.

He estimated the state would pay for 70% of that work and the town the rest.