Editor’s note: This story appeared in The County’s Business Tribute in the print edition on Feb. 5, 2025.
EAGLE LAKE, Maine — Fish River Rural Health, a nonprofit health organization, has now been providing medical care to residents in northern Maine’s St. John Valley region for 35 years.
According to a 2017 presentation available via the Maine Primary Care Association website, the history of health care in the region dates back even further.
Aroostook Community Action Program approached residents in Eagle Lake and surrounding communities that were designated as medically underserved in 1978. A year later, a mobile health center van began providing services for residents in and between Eagle Lake and St. Francis.
A couple years later, the Eagle Lake Health Center was built, and in 1985 the Fort Kent Health Center opened at the Northern Maine Medical Center. And in 1990, Fish River Rural Health was officially established as a nonprofit.
Since 1990, the organization has continuously expanded. It added mental health, substance use, and comprehensive dental services. In 2012, Fish River moved out of NMMC to 3 Mountain Drive. In 2015 it acquired the Bolduc Avenue Health Center and in 2018 expanded the building to offer multiple services ranging from family practice medicine and osteopathic manipulation therapy to family dental services and substance use disorder counseling.
Fish River began leasing a space in Madawaska as a part-time facility in 2017. CEO Heather Pelletier said the Madawaska expansion happened after seeing that many of the Eagle Lake facility patients were from that area. A couple years later in 2019, Fish River increased its Madawaska space to a full-time facility. It has since expanded into every available space at the roughly 9,000-square-foot Madawaska property.
Now, a new Madawaska facility is on the way.
The new facility will be 30,000 square feet and located in Madawaska’s midtown plaza. The new facility will be built adjacent to a multi-modal transportation system accommodating people walking or traveling on ATVs and snowmobiles.
Fish River’s new Madawaska facility is expected to open this fall.
