By RANDY SEAVER | Editor
One of the coolest things about doing something for more than 30 years is the memories you make along the way.
As a political junkie – especially in regards to the city of Biddeford – it is extremely rewarding for me to have an archive of local political news that dates back nearly 30 years to the mid-1990s.
Today, I have a 31-year-old neighbor who is super excited about possibly serving on Biddeford’s upcoming Charter Review Commission.
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DISCLOSURE | Because he is now a political candidate in Biddeford, Sam Pecor no longer serves on the Biddeford Gazette’s Community Advisory Board.
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I am the only active reporter who remembers another young man who was also very excited about serving on Biddeford’s Charter Review Commission more than 10 years ago.
That young man won his election to the Charter Review Commission and used that opportunity to launch a successful political career. Today, that once enthusiastic teenager is the Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives.
In fairness, Ryan Fecteau actually started his political career as a student representative on the Biddeford School Committee while attending Biddeford High School.
My wife, Laura – the Gazette’s publisher – was serving on the school committee at that time, and she was designated to be Fecteau’s coach and advisor.
That is one of our strengths at the Biddeford Gazette. We have unmatched institutional knowledge about the city of Biddeford, its politics and its people.
The Gazette can use and rely on that knowledge to offer our readers valuable context to important stories that impact our community.
I got thinking about all of this because the Gazette is still working on a feature story about Chuck Cote of Biddeford and his dedication to building and maintaining a fascinating archive of Biddeford’s sports and political history, especially when it comes to the former St. Louis High School.
The working title of that upcoming story is Taking A Walk Down Biddeford’s Memory Lane.
We interviewed Chuck last week. Why is it taking so long to publish a story that we know is being highly anticipated by many of our readers?
Primarily, because that story is complex and we consider it to be very important. Moreover, we care much more about doing a good job rather than doing a quick job.
What a long, strange trip it’s been
The Gazette’s historical archive comes primarily from my days as a reporter and editor for the Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier from 1997 to 2006; as a freelance reporter for Saco Bay News (2023-2024) and from my personal blog, All Along the Watchtower that started in 1999 as a weekly column in the Courier and continued until I launched the Biddeford Gazette in Nov. 2024
Today, All Along the Watchtower is just an archive collecting dust on my personal website Lessons In Mediocrity | Outlaw Journalist.
CAUTION | My personal website is somewhat messy and in the process of being revamped, so please temper your expectations. It also contains coarse language.
There is other stuff on my website, dating back to the early 1980s when I was working as a temporary, non-paid, student intern at the Journal Tribune, Biddeford’s former daily newspaper.
There is also stuff there from my days as collaborative research reporter and communications director for the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, a non-profit that covered fisheries in the Gulf of Maine and my time as senior associate at Barton & Gingold, one of Maine’s most respected political and public policy consulting firms.
While working at Barton & Gingold, I really enjoyed playing a role in shaping public policy issues that were sometimes controversial.
Shortly after Barton & Gingold was sold in 2014, I launched my own political consulting firm, Randy Seaver Consulting.
I still operate my own consulting practice, but I do not work for any clients or projects that could be connected to the city of Biddeford. That would be a glaring and unacceptable conflict of interest.
In closing, if you so desire you can find my installment of my Then & Now updates (Ryan Fecteau) at this link | All The Young Dudes, Redux
CORRECTION | Though it is grossly ironic and thus difficult to admit, this story contained a typographical error regarding its own historical context. I worked as a freelance reporter at Saco Bay News from 2023 to 2024, not starting in 2003, before Saco Bay News even existed. I am fortunate and grateful that I can still rely on my former editor Liz Gotthelf and her eagle-eye and penchant for accuracy. In retrospect, perhaps it’s time for this old geezer to be put out to pasture. We sincerely apologize for the error.
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That’s our opinion, and we welcome yours. You may submit either a guest column of the same length or a letter to the editor by contacting us at biddefordgazette@gmail.com.
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