PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 28, 2025
Biddeford residents gathered last week to air grievances to the City Council about the proposed University of New England pier project. Moderator Craig Pendleton said that while UNE has followed the permitting process as required by law the pier project has been controversial, with residents pushing for a different location than the one proposed on the Saco River adjacent to the UNE campus. Wade Goldthwaite, a lifelong Biddeford resident and former lobsterman, said it “breaks his heart” that the city did not take the advice of the Marshall Alexander on where to place the pier. Carole Alexander, wife of the late Marshall Alexander, said, “He was familiar with the river, he knew that there’s an eddy up there…he knew everything about that river.” Shawn Tibbetts, a commercial fisherman in Biddeford, said, “There’s no way they can use these docks. There are times I can’t get my boat on my mooring. That tide turns sometimes every 15 minutes in that eddy. We left out the local knowledge in these decisions.”