Chester animal hospital on mend after winter fire

CHESTER – The Lincoln Lakes area’s only veterinarian plans to reopen his animal hospital next month after it was heavily damaged by fire in February, he said Friday.

Five construction workers were rebuilding the floor and laying tiles in 19 animal kennels on Friday at the Chester Animal Hospital at 185 Pea Ridge Road.

“We’re a little behind schedule and at about 95 percent completion. We should be out of there within two weeks,” said Bob Cyr, project manager for Keith Trembley Builders-Paul Davis Restoration of Old Town, which is handling the rebuilding effort.

Once the floor and tile work are finished, other workers will install the clinic’s wall cabinets, sinks and utilities and start moving in furniture and setting up equipment, veterinarian Dr. Joseph Nesin said.

“I am really pleased with the quality of the work. I think that it will be a nicely renovated, well-done clinic,” Nesin said Friday.

Four purebred dogs and a purebred cat died Feb 17 when a fire began in a clothes dryer in the laundry room of Nesin’s practice, a large turn-of-the-century wooden barn connected to a farmhouse.

No human was injured. The flames destroyed the room, and smoke and heat damage ruined the rest of the barn. Firefighters from Lee, Lincoln, Howland and Mattawamkeag fought the fire. About 40 firefighters were there.

Nesin estimated the damage at $150,000.

The Howland native opened the hospital in February 1989. The nearest other animal hospitals or veterinarians are the Timberland Animal Hospital in Orono and the North Woods Animal Clinic in East Millinocket, according to a Web search.

Nesin has been recommending his clients take their pets to clinics and veterinarians in the Bangor area, although his practice is still dispensing shots and medicines to animals for which they are prescribed, he said.

“People have been quite patient and very understanding. I could not be more pleased with how they have responded to this,” he said.