Nick Koch, left, Jake Danforth, center, and Mike Rawstron of Pro Cut Lawn & Landscaping rebuild the damaged walkway Monday at Veterans Memorial Park on Main Street in Lewiston. Rawstron said his Sabattus-based company had a crew working on the project over the weekend so the walkway can be complete for the Lewiston-Auburn Liberty Festival on Thursday. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

LEWISTON — Crowds attending this weekend’s Lewiston-Auburn Liberty Festival can check out the progress the L&A Veterans Council and the city have made since the devastating floods last December severely damaged Veterans Memorial Park on Main Street.

High water and the swift current from the Androscoggin River washed away much of the retaining walls, knocked down or damaged some of the monuments and smashed several memorial benches into small pieces. The Army jeep and a 51mm Naval cannon were in danger of getting swept into the river.

Restoration work began in May after months of uncertainty and are ongoing.

The festival will feature music, food and fireworks Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the parking lot next to the park.

L&A Veterans Council Chairman Jerry DeWitt said a rededication ceremony of the park won’t occur until Veterans Day in November. He added that a new granite memorial stone with more names of local veterans will be unveiled then.

“More loam needs to be brought in, and then we need to add grass seed or sod,” DeWitt said. The loam is a special kind of soil and sand mixture.

A grant the city received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will not pay for sod, but will pay to have the park seeded, he added.

The jeep and cannon have been placed on more steady ground with the assistance of the Cote Corp., which provided equipment and manpower at no cost. The city has built a paved walkway that circles the cannon. Another walkway is being built on the upper level of the park, DeWitt said.

The Veterans Council is waiting for additional loam to be brought in and the grass seeded before it brings back the broken benches and memorials. The council has worked with Collette Monument to restore the damaged items.

According to DeWitt, a group of retired Army veterans will visit the park sometime this summer and volunteer their time to repaint the park’s WWII tank.