Tag: Saco River

Won’t Get Fooled Again

~ Randy Seaver ~ 2 Comments

What’s going on with the University of New England and its plan to build a new pier on the Saco River?

Why is the university worried about a small time, mediocre reporter and the stories he writes about the proposed pier?

I don’t know how to answer those two questions.

But here’s what I do know: I’m not going away. I’m not giving up. In fact, I’m about to turn up the heat on this particular story.

On the day after last week’s election, I was feeling a bit glum and somewhat overwhelmed, so I decided to take a break and watch one of my favorite films, All the President’s Men.

For those of you who don’t know, the 1976 film was about two intrepid reporters from the Washington Post – Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward — who ultimately forced the resignation of President Richard Nixon at the height of the Watergate scandal.

Watching the film again, reminded me of just how hard and frustrating it is to be a reporter, whether you’re working for the Washington Post or the Biddeford Gazette.

Throughout history, governments, large corporations and powerful individuals have all sought to control the press; to push their own narrative and maintain secrecy. Sometimes stonewalling a reporter works.

Sometimes it doesn’t.

John Mitchell, President Nixon’s attorney general, threatened Katherine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, during the Watergate scandal in 1972.

Mitchell warned the reporters, the editor and even the publisher of the Washington Post: “Katie Graham’s gonna get her tit caught in a big fat wringer if that’s published,” Mitchell said.

The Washington Post did not back down, even though many other newspapers were nervous or reluctant to dig deeper into the scandal at that point in time.

Let’s pause here for a moment.

I am not Carl Bernstein. Saco Bay News is not The Washington Post. And my stories are much, much less than microscopic when compared to historic stories such as Watergate or The Pentagon Papers.

I am just a semi-retired, overweight, underachieving, middle-aged, bald man with very few of his original teeth left and no college degree. (In fairness, Carl Bernstein also never earned a college degree).

So, if you stop and think about it, why should anyone at the University of New England give a rat’s ass about anything I write? What are they afraid of?

You better, you better, you bet

Earlier this year, I learned about the University of New England’s plan to construct a new pier on the Saco River.

Just a few weeks later, Biddeford City Manager James Bennett quashed both the city’s harbor master and the assistant harbor master from the regulatory review process.

When I contacted Bennett about his move, he told me it was done in order to prevent “bias.”

I got to work on my first story about the proposed pier, which was published by Saco Bay News on May 25th.

As the story continued to unfold, I wrote follow-up stories about the controversy. You can find all three of those stories by clicking on this link.

Just days after my third story was published, a representative from the university reportedly contacted the publisher of Saco Bay News and told her that “it would be best if Randy Seaver no longer wrote stories about the university.”

The University of New England (UNE) won. They got me bounced from the story . . . or did they?

Although you’re not going to see any more stories written by me in Saco Bay News about UNE’s pier, I am actually just beginning my effort to bring public awareness and transparency to this issue.

UNE’s attempt to silence the media has backfired. They can now expect an amplification of coverage on this issue.

You can’t handle the truth!

Reporters are trained to ignore rhetoric and focus on facts. If you read any of my prior reporting about UNE’s proposal, you will see that each article is balanced, fair and focused on facts.

That is the same approach I am taking here. I decided that once and for all, I wanted to see and explore some facts for myself.

A few weeks ago, I was invited to take a boat tour of the Saco River near the proposed location of the university’s pier.

I was not the only one invited to take this tour. Every member of the Biddeford City Council was given the very same opportunity. Every member of the media in southern Maine was also given the same invitation.

So far, I am the only journalist or Biddeford city official who has ventured onto the river to discover for myself what the hard data shows about adequate water depths.

It was an eye-opening experience, to put it mildly.

Below is a short video of what I learned during my tour near the base of the Saco River. I have also created a separate page on this blog site to gather and publicly share information about this topic.

My advice to the university and the city of Biddeford is this: Brace yourselves. I will not go gently into that good night. I want facts and transparency. This is not the end of my reporting.

It is just the beginning.

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Take me to the river

~ Randy Seaver ~ Leave a comment

An uncommon view of the mighty Saco River

When I was a boy I saw things much differently.  I perceived the world as it involved me, a selfish perspective that clouded reality.

I remember my days as a paper boy, delivering the Portland Press Herald along a route that stretched from my Franklin Street home in Saco, down through Maple Street and onto Pine Street in Biddeford, where I would deliver newspapers to businesses on Gooch Island and along Elm Street.

Those were the days long before the Maine Energy Recovery Company (MERC) started burning trash to generate electricity on the banks of the Saco River. Those were the days when Biddeford Textile and the Saco Tannery buildings were still bustling with hundreds of mill workers. Those were the days long  before MERC’s 244-foot concrete ventilation stack dominated the downtown landscape of the two cities.

Those were the days when we were proud to call it “Factory Island,” not “Saco Island.”

On Saturday mornings, I would linger on the bridge at the bottom of York Hill before heading to my great-grandmother’s home for my weekly indulgence of donuts, pizza and Saturday morning cartoons.

Those were the days.

I recall those autumn mornings that were no different than it was this morning, when the air was crisp and you needed a jacket to stave off the early morning damp. I would pause on that bridge, gazing over the river at the sprawling complex of brick mill buildings before me. Clouds of vapor would rise off the churning waters as the rising sun brought with it the promise of a new day.

Hopefully, the MERC waste to energy incinerator will soon be a thing of our past

As I sat there, lost in my childish musings, I imagined that one day I would be the richest man in the world. Then, I would own that entire complex of mill buildings on both sides of the river and renovate them to become one giant home that required hundreds of servants and housekeepers. I would keep my vast collection of gold bouillon high above where any thief could reach, perched atop one of the many smokestacks.

Finally, that cute blonde girl who sat next to me in history class would see the error of her ways. She would naturally fall in love with me, and marry me when we were old enough. Maybe when I was old enough to drive.

I never imagined anything different. This was my world. This is what I wanted, and there was no reason to think that it would not happen. No reason to think that those buildings would not become my own private complex. I was meant to be king of the world.

Today, I see things differently. That cute blonde girl missed the boat. I will remind her of that next weekend, during my 30th high school reunion. She will, no doubt, be overcome with grief. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

So it was this Saturday morning when I found myself once again at the bottom of York Hill, on the invisible line that separates two cities. Apparently, the sun kept rising, and it kept delivering the promise of a new day.

But this morning I was driving a Ford F-150, not a three-speed Huffy. I was not delivering newspapers, but I did get caught up in some splendid imagination during a site tour of the proposed River Walk that will one day lead pedestrians through a path along the river. It will be a path full of stunning visuals, replete with history and art.

We were a small group being led by Alix Hopkins. Her energy and enthusiasm for this project is contagious. Alix has worked in collaborative land conservation, communications and related fields for more than 30 years.  You can learn more about her on her web site.

They say that most New Yorkers have never been to the Statue of Liberty or to the top of the Empire State Building.

But I imagine the same is true for those of us who have lived in the Biddeford-Saco region for all our lives. The views along the River Walk are simply amazing, and it offers a powerful reminder of our community’s past, not to mention a unique perspective of  the river that keeps flowing regardless of how much it is ignored or taken for granted.

Those of us who live here often boast of our gorgeous beaches, our stunning coastline and the brilliant architecture that peppers our downtown. This section of the Saco River may be partially hidden, but its brute force is truly a sight to behold.

I can only imagine how the first settlers of Pepperellboro viewed the mighty Saco River, but thanks to Alix and dozens of volunteers and city leaders, we won’t have to settle for imagination much longer.

To learn more, go here