FORT KENT, Maine — Fort Kent Public Works Director Tony Theriault, who helped the town through countless storms and staved off major downtown flooding in 2008, officially retired on Tuesday, capping off a 17-year career.
Theriault, a Fort Kent native, first applied for the public works director position around 2005, but did not get the job. He said his wife encouraged him to apply again. A town councilor who was familiar with Theriault’s work also encouraged him to reapply.
He was hired in October 2007.
While he does not have a college education, he said his skills in numerous other areas likely helped him get the job. It was that background and Theriault’s own intuition that played a major role in saving the town from a potentially disastrous flood just months after he was hired for the role.
“I was into paving, ditch work, I ran an excavator, and I had trucking experience,” he said of his experience that helped him land the town manager role. “So they must have seen that, and most of the people probably knew me.”
The town saw record snow going from the fall of 2007 into the spring of 2008. He said Fort Kent had about 230 inches of snow during this time.
“We had all kinds of emergency management meetings, and I was green to all of that,” he said.
While much of the focus was on the snow, Theriault said his intuition was that he should learn more about the town’s levee, which his department maintains and would need to hold in the event of a flood. He read the levee’s manual in its entirety over the winter, and when the snow melted, he put his new knowledge to use.
Theriault and others at the department ended up reinforcing and extending the existing levee with sandbags stacked 4 feet high and nearly 800-feet long. The levee is located near the town’s historic blockhouse just after the bridge on Main Street over the Fish River.
He had one of his crew members start pumping thousands of gallons out of the section building up to the top of the levee.
“The water came within 6 inches of overtopping,” he said. “And at 11 o’clock, I could see the waterline had stopped and it had started going down. I said, ‘Holy cow.’ And we had worked for I think 45 to 50 hours straight there.”
Throughout the experience, he said everyone worked together. Because of this, they prevented what could have been a disastrous flood throughout the downtown area.
Residents rejected upgrades to the levee that would extend its height, primarily because it could have cost $10 to $15 million and would have also spoiled the view of the blockhouse, Theriault said.
And while residents commended Theriault for his actions, he said he was just doing his job.
“I wasn’t a hero,” he said. “I read the manual.”
The Army Corps of Engineers, whom he worked with during the flood, gave him a retirement card and a medallion with the phrase “essayons” inscribed. The French phrase roughly translates to “let us try.”
“That’s their motto,” he said. ”They’ll try. They’ll help anybody, or try to do it. And it fits right in with me. I never gave up on anything. I’ll try anything. So I’ll cherish that forever.”
Theriault was born and raised in Fort Kent. His father was a truck driver, and died in an accident when Theriault was just 5 years old. It happened in Island Falls as he and others were working on building the I-95 interstate.
Theriault’s mother later remarried, and his stepfather was involved in construction and paving.
While he doesn’t remember much of his father, Theriault said he likely had an impact on his eventual career trajectory. His father hauled wood and, during his senior year of high school, Theriault started driving a log truck.
He got his class one license and drove for a company for four years. Then he bought his own log truck and became an owner-operator.
“I was averaging over 80 hours a week, and my wife says ‘It’s time for you to slow down,” he said of his time working for himself before applying for town manager.
Fort Kent Town Council in November officially hired Chad Pelletier to take over as the new director after Theriault’s retirement. Pelletier has also worked with the department for 17 years, but came on as a full-time employee in 2012 as a plow truck driver.
Throughout nearly two decades working together, Pelletier described Theriault as patient and mild tempered.
“He was a great mentor to the whole crew and wasn’t afraid to share his knowledge,” Pelletier said of Theriault.
Pelletier said the most valuable lesson learned through working with Theriault was the ability to lead by example.
“It wasn’t uncommon to see him walking behind the patch box, shoveling around culverts, or up in the bucket truck working on street lights,” Pelletier said. “He would never have us do anything that he wouldn’t do himself and I plan to continue that practice.”
Theriault said he is looking forward to not being on call 24/7, although watching for storms will be a tough habit to break. On Wednesday night, his first day of retirement, he instinctively got up and started watching for snow.
“I’ll work a little bit,” he said of his post-retirement plans, “but I’ll pick my jobs. And it won’t be plowing snow.”
The best part of the job, for Theriault, is all the people he got to meet and work alongside, including the Maine Forest Service, Maine State Police, the Maine Department of Transportation, and people in municipal departments in Fort Kent and beyond.
He is confident that the department is in good hands with Pelletier. And likewise, Pelletier plans to take lessons learned from his former boss throughout his career.
“One thing you could count on was his calm and composed demeanor, and quiet confidence to navigate us out of a bad situation,” Pelletier said. “It’s a rare quality, and it’s something I’ll remember and respect about him for the rest of my life.”
