EASTPORT – Washington County soon will have an eight-station kidney dialysis center now that the state has given the go-ahead to a Massachusetts-based company to open one Down East.

When the center is running, patients will no longer have to make the long trek to Bangor or Ellsworth several times a week to undergo dialysis treatments.

State Human Services Commissioner Kevin Concannon last week told Gerald Lalime of Bio-Medical Applications of Maine Inc. that he was approving a certificate of need that will allow the company to build the $455,800 facility. Bio-Medical is a division of Fresenius Medical Care North America, a Lexington, Mass., company.

Fresenius is one of the largest providers of private dialysis clinics and a producer of dialysis products. It operates 1,000 clinics nationally.

Although the new facility will be in the Eastport area, it will serve the needs of patients regionally, City Manager George “Bud” Finch said Tuesday. “It’s been driven from day one not as an economic development tool but as a patient-care, quality-of-life tool,” he said.

Concannon said that in order for the approval to remain valid, the project must begin within a year. Finch said company officials told him they expect to hold a grand opening at the end of July.

“I am granting this Certificate of Need,” Concannon said in his letter, “because I have determined that a public need for the proposal has been demonstrated, the applicant is fit, willing and able to provide the proposed services at the proper standard of care; the project is financially and economically feasible; and the project is consistent with the orderly and economic development of health facilities and resources for the state and the general objective of the state’s health plan.”

The next step, Concannon said, is for all working drawings and construction specifications to be approved by the licensing and fire marshal officials before construction.

Last year, retired school superintendent Omar Norton and his wife, Eleanor Norton, led a fight to acquire such a facility Down East. The Nortons became interested in establishing a dialysis center in the area after they saw the hardship their friends and neighbors suffered because they had to drive hundreds of miles each week for treatment.

The Nortons organized meetings, talked with medical officials and called upon local people to work toward the goal.

George “Buster” Townsend, whose wife, Janet, recently died after a long battle with kidney disease, said he was pleased there would be a dialysis center closer to home. “It allows you to stay within a community where you have the most support,” he said.

The Eastport city councilor said that being able to be treated closer to home means a lot. “I found with Janet’s illness over the years [that] whenever she got out of the hospital and was able to get home, you could watch the healing improve, just because of the fact that she was in familiar surroundings,” he said.

“This is good news for the Passamaquoddy also,” Pleasant Point Lt. Gov. Eddie Bassett said Tuesday, because the new facility will allow tribal members who need dialysis to remain near the reservation. “It is a strain on families. That we will have it in the local area is a welcome relief,” he said.

Bassett said the tribe looked forward to establishing a positive working relationship with Fresenius. “This is a need that we have identified, not just for Pleasant Point, but for the whole area. This is about health care, something we all need to work together on,” he said.

Pleasant Point Gov. Rick Doyle said that since a number of tribal members suffer from diabetes and hypertension, which can result in kidney damage, the facility is long overdue.

“Hopefully, by locating it in the area, the people of Washington County can have more positive stories about their receiving health care without having to bounce down the Airline [Route 9] just to stay alive.” The governor said that the tribe appreciated Fresenius’ efforts to locate a facility Down East.

Finch said he was in contact with Lalime, who was in Eastport last week to negotiate a site for the treatment facility. Lalime did not return a telephone call Tuesday.

Although the company has not yet confirmed where the facility will be, it is considering a lease with the Passamaquoddy Tribe for the former Gates Fiber Extrusion office building on Route 190.

The dialysis facility is expected to serve 20 patients during the first year. Dr. Shahid Mansoor, an Eastport-based nephrologist, will oversee the project.

During the past 10 years, according to the Fresenius Web site, the number of U.S. dialysis patients has increased from 100,000 to more than 250,000, with a growth rate of 7 percent a year.