INDIAN TOWNSHIP – The Passamaquoddy business Source for Native American Products, or SNAP, in Eastport has been awarded a grant of up to $31.2 million from the Defense Logistics Agency for the production of chemical protective suits for the military, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins announced Tuesday.

SNAP will subcontract the work to its sister company Creative Apparel of Belfast, which has manufacturing facilities in Eastport, Belmont, Harmony, Dover-Foxcroft, Indian Township and Fort Kent.

SNAP is owned by the Passamaquoddy Tribe’s Indian Township Reservation and by J&P Apparel Belmont.

Creative Apparel makes clothes that provide servicemen and women with protection from the effects of biological contaminants such as anthrax and smallpox and toxins such as the nerve gas sarin.

George Rybarczyk, president of Creative Apparel, said Tuesday his company would get about half the amount of the contract. “The facility is there in case they need for us to produce more,” he said. “Then they can go ahead and give us more [orders].”

Collins was pleased by the grant.

“It is absolutely vital that the men and women serving in our armed forces have access to the most advanced protective gear possible so that they will be safe during combat,” Collins said in a prepared statement. “I am pleased that my office was able to help secure this funding that will allow the company to maintain production at its facilities. I am also proud that a Maine company can contribute to our national defense.”

Funds will be used to manufacture JSLIST Chemical Suits for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, Collins’ press release said. The Joint Service Lightweight Integrated Suit Technology, or JSLIST, is a two-piece garment featuring a state-of-the-art chemical protective lining.

The grant was good news for the Passamaquoddy Tribe.

Indian Township Chief Billy Nicholas said that he and Lt. Gov. Joe Socabasin, along with other tribal leaders, met with Maine’s congressional delegation in February and asked for their help to keep jobs in Indian Township and Eastport. “It’s an area of high poverty and it’s [important] when it comes to jobs for the people,” the chief said.

Pleasant Point Chief Rick Doyle did not return a telephone call Tuesday.

It has been a seesaw ride for Creative Apparel.

Last year, 15 sewers were laid off as a result of cutbacks at the Eastport plant. Then in March of this year, company officials announced that 60 workers were expected to be back on the job at plants around the state after the company was awarded a $9 million federal contract.

The latest contract will allow Creative Apparel to maintain its present staff. “We have called everybody back except for maybe 20 employees in Eastport that still haven’t come back,” Rybarczyk said. “But we are still on a schedule to keep calling some more of those people back.”

The company employs about 300 people.

Rybarczyk said the contract would last through January and that he is pursuing other federal contracts as well.

Nicholas said the tribe also is pursuing other contracts. “But George [Rybarczyk] and his wife, Sharon, have to take most of the credit because they are on it every day,” the chief said. “But the lieutenant governor and I are on it as well. … It’s a priority to keep this business going because it employs at any given time in Washington County [as many as] 100 employees. We are about at half of that, maybe a little more now, but we’re building it back up.”

Eastport officials also were pleased by Tuesday’s news.

It was City Manager George “Bud” Finch who in 1998 turned the former 72,000-square-foot Guilford of Maine mill into a business center that housed not only Creative Apparel but also Tex-Shield Inc. Tex-Shield manufactures the materials for the chemical warfare suits.

“This is definitely good news,” Finch said. “Anything that is good for the SNAP program and Creative Apparel is also good for Tex-Shield.”

The city manager said it also was good news for the city. “While the company has gone through its up-and-down times, it has continued to provide jobs since 1998,” he said. “It brings people into town to work and provides local jobs and money is spent locally.”

The Defense Logistics Agency is a unit of the Department of Defense.