HOWLAND – Two weeks ago, the town dock was torn from its moorings by unusually heavy currents and large trees that had fallen into the Piscataquis River. In two or three weeks, it will be reinstalled, according town officials.

The components of the dock, including all but four of the roughly 45 1.5-foot cubes and six large plastic screws that helped hold the dock to its cement moorings, were recovered last Friday. They were found near Birch Island across from the Passadumkeag boat landing in the Penobscot River, Selectman Joe Dunn said on Thursday.

Wardens from Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife used a boat, and the town road crew used a truck to return the parts to the town garage after they were recovered, Dunn said. New parts that will cost about $863 were ordered from a Canadian manufacturer and should arrive within a few weeks.

The news pleased local businesspeople Friday. They said the dock gets almost daily use from boaters and fishermen who visit the area in search of bass and salmon.

“It’s not really a big deal yet because people are not running the river much,” said Sheila Michaud, a cook at The Corner Store, which is located near the dock. “A lot of people use that dock to put their boats in or take them out. They usually do that in June.

“A lot of them [are] from out of state,” Michaud said Friday. “When I am working at night during the summer, the store is usually packed. On any given night, anywhere from 25 to 30 people come through here, fishermen mostly.”

Dunn, who helped retrieve the dock, was also pleased, although he felt the dock’s loss made the town a laughingstock to the rest of the state.

“I am just glad we got it back,” Dunn said. “It’s just an experience to learn from. This dock would probably be about $10,000 to replace entirely.

“I never realized how valuable it was until we lost it,” he said.

Dunn said he thought the dock was put into the water too early in the year. It was lost overnight on April 26 after unusually heavy seasonal rainfalls and snowmelts had vastly increased the Piscataquis River’s flow. It reportedly was found on an island a week ago Thursday in the Penobscot River in Passadumkeag, town officials said.

Dunn was grateful to the wardens, the road crew and Mark Parker of Passadumkeag for finding the dock. The crew, wardens and Dunn worked hard to free the dock from a tree it was ensnared with, he said.