Linda Boudreau: Wearing Many Hats

Perhaps the simpler question for Linda Boudreau would be what civic role she has not held during her many years of public service.

But it’s OK to ask the question the other way, too. The long-time South Portland leader happily runs down a considerable list: PTA activist; school committee member (six years); Planning Board member (two years); city councilor (18 years); mayor (three times); trustee, Cumberland County Civic Center; board member, Southern Maine Community College; director, ecomaine; and, much more.

Boudreau attributes part of her passion for public service to her late uncle, Paris Snow, who served as a state legislator from Caribou.

“I grew up knowing about politics, running for office and all of that stuff,” said Boudreau, a native of Caribou herself and a graduate of Caribou High School and the University of Southern Maine.

“We moved to South Portland in 1975 and they were closing Willard School,” recalled Boudreau. “Everyone was up in arms and I jumped on the bandwagon. I’m new in town and I remember the first time I ran (for school committee) I thought, ‘Oh my god, I don’t even know anyone.’ ”

She won anyway. And now, some 35 years later, everyone in South Portland knows her.

Boudreau’s years of municipal service have been marked by many challenges: a devastating flood that left her city without water for three days; a tanker spill that sent 180,000 gallons of oil into the Fore River between Portland and South Portland; a propane explosion that claimed the life of a firefighter.

“We had those three events in three months,” Boudreau said.

Through it all, Boudreau has tried to approach things with a sense of calm and confidence. When issues arise, she said, you tackle them one at a time. Solutions generally present themselves if processes are followed and time is spent wisely.

“You always come out on the other side of an issue,” she said. “You learn that with experience.”

FIRST YEAR WAS HARDEST

Boudreau recalls her first year on the South Portland City Council as the most difficult one in her career. She came to the council well-prepared, after years as a school committee member and having served on the Planning Board.

Still, outspoken council critics were relentless at the time.

“You know how every council has people who come and torture their councilors,” Boudreau said. “They would keep us there until 3 a.m. on some days. You were completely exhausted.”

In the early and mid-1990s, property rights advocates in South Portland were active and vocal. The city still was able to pass a comprehensive plan, shoreland zoning and other important planning measures. But it wasn’t easy.

There was also a fight during her first term as councilor surrounding the future of a composting facility near Highland Avenue, a neighborhood that is well-developed residentially today but in the 1990s was semi-rural in nature.

“We had to have police coming and sitting in on some of those meetings,” Boudreau said.

Being a municipal leader in South Portland is no easy chore. The city of 23,746 people throws just about every issue at its leaders that one can imagine. It is home to the Maine Mall, the state’s largest retail area. A few working farms remain in the city, but most residents live in dense and trendy neighborhoods with names like Meetinghouse Hill, Ferry Village and Willard Beach.

A major shipping port, it sees oil tankers come and go on a daily basis and is home to many oil holding facilities. Yet it also offers some of Maine’s most beautiful ocean views from the pathways near Southern Maine Community College and a stone jetty connecting the mainland to the lighthouse at Spring Point.

VICTORY AT BUG LIGHT

Ask Boudreau what achievement makes her proudest, and she answers without hesitation – preserving open space at what is now Bug Light Park, a remarkable spate of land that offers views of the Portland skyline, Fort Gorges and Peaks Island, among other destinations.

The park almost didn’t happen. Controversy started when an oil company proposed putting an oil farm on vacant land – “abandoned property” – near the historic site where Liberty Ships were built during World War II. Almost immediately, residents came together to oppose the project.

In some ways, that was the easy part. The hard part was finding $2.5 million to protect the property and, eventually, turn it into the park that it is today. That effort included convincing voters to approve a $1 million bond backed by the city, which they eventually did.

Today, kite flyers and bicyclists frequent the park. It’s an excellent place to take a lunch break. Older visitors just ease their cars into parking spaces at the park, turn off the ignitions and soak in the views, sometimes for hours.

“Bug Light Park worked out great,” said Boudreau, 60, who married Guy Boudreau in 1969, when he was drafted into the Vietnam War. Together, they raised two children, a daughter who lives in South Portland and a son in Fort Worth, Texas. They have three grandchildren.

“Bug Light was also hard work,” she said. “Sometimes you think, ‘We’re losing this. It’s not going to make it.’ ”

Probably every long-serving municipal official has at least one regret as well. Boudreau can see hers every day by looking out the front window of her home – a communication tower that was erected on Meetinghouse Hill. While she voted against the tower, South Portland zoning permitted its construction and most councilors backed it.

“From my neighbor’s kitchen window, you really feel like the thing is on top of you,” she said.

RESPECT FOR MANAGERS

Boudreau worked with three city managers during her years on the council – Jerre Bryant, Jeff Jordan and James Gailey – and she has great respect for the profession.

She was first tapped by her peers as mayor after five years on City Council. Almost right away, “Jerre Bryant announces he’s leaving for the Maine Mall (as manager),” she recalled. “Jeff Jordan stepped in as interim manager and then became manager. We had a fabulous year together.” Gailey is the manager now.

Boudreau described Bryant, Jordan and Gailey as having distinct personalities, with different approaches to managing the council and municipal employees. But all three showed deep commitment to the city that they served.

At this point, Boudreau has “termed out” as a City Councilor for the second time. She is taking some time off and is uncertain whether she will seek re-election in the future.

In the past, she has served both as a district councilor – representing her neighborhood on the council – and as an “at large” councilor, one who has citywide responsibilities. The two designations require different approaches to the post, Boudreau said.

The longer she served on the council, the more she was tapped for regional service, such as working with the ecomaine board and the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System (PACTS). It would be hard to help those organizations and be a district councilor, she said.

“You’re doing regional work. You don’t have time to champion a walkway.”

One of the highest-profile issues in the city these days is whether dogs should be allowed on the city’s beach areas. That may seem trivial compared to oil spills and propane explosions, but emotions run high on both sides of the dog issue in South Portland.

In terms of seeking office again, Boudreau sounds like a woman who is keeping her options open. Even at the municipal level, at least in South Portland, politics have taken on a more partisan tone in recent years, she said. That’s one factor in favor of not running again, at least not now.

But with all the experience she has accumulated, Boudreau has a lot to offer her city. “Sometimes, you have a lot of information and you have an obligation to share it,” she said.

Looking back on 35 years of public service, Boudreau recognizes that she has been involved with all kinds of issues and worked with many people, from very localized issues to a citywide planning effort known as “Project Plan.” That effort resulted in neighborhood-by-neighborhood strategic plans and a better understanding among residents that businesses in the city are actually run by real people, and companies fulfill many important functions.

“Maybe that’s what I like most about the council,” she said. “I know a little about an awful lot of things.”