FORT KENT – A 6-acre parcel along the Fish River floodplain is being restored by the town with a grant of more than $200,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The site, a public works garage and sand and culvert storage area off Pleasant Street, will be transformed with new vegetation by fall. It is located just north of a new bridge between Pleasant and Market streets.

The town had used the site for more than 50 years. Nearly every spring, much of the land there was underwater as the Fish River rose with the spring freshet.

Last fall, through the winter and this spring, the town finished a new Public Works Department garage on Route 161, just west of town, on the same site where the town has its wastewater treatment facility. Equipment and stored materials were moved there last April, leaving the Pleasant Street site vacant.

The FEMA grant of $212,000 was acquired because the town was putting more than $700,000 in the construction of its new garage and work area. Construction of the new garage alone cost $635,000.

The reclaimed site had underground storage tanks for fuel oil, gasoline and diesel fuel. There was some excavation of contaminated soils as well as removal and disposal of asbestos.

The town’s fire department used the old building as a practice burn last May.

“We are reclaiming the old site along the Fish River,” Town Manager Donald Guimond said Tuesday. “We’ve been there since the early 1950s.

“This project will change the appearance of the whole area,” he said. “It will be nice, and all cleaned up.”

Students from the Fort Kent Elementary School, Fort Kent Community High School and the University of Maine at Fort Kent worked on the project this spring. One of the things created there is a walking trail from the site to the Heritage Trail that leads through a swampy forest to East Main Street, or all the way to St. Francis. Many people were involved.

The trail from the Heritage Trail to the reclaimed site is for walkers and joggers only, no motorized access.

Over the years, a lot of fill, gravel and sand was brought to the old site to make it workable. Now, that is being removed and a three-tiered site is being created from Pleasant Street to the banks of the Fish River.

Each tier will have different vegetation, from soft- and hardwoods to smaller plants. Vernal pools are being created in the lowland.

“We are recreating the kind of habitat that was there decades ago,” Guimond said.

The Soil Conservation Service is assisting with the plantings.

Work at the site started as soon as the town vacated the site last spring. Actual groundwork started two weeks ago by the Up North Corp, a Fort Kent contractor.

The conceptual plan for the project was designed by URS Corp., a national firm hired by FEMA.

The town will retain ownership of the site.