PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 31, 2025
More than a decade ago, Biddeford tore down the widely despised trash-burning plant that had dominated and degraded its downtown for 25 years. Now, city officials are considering whether the plant’s 240-foot-tall smokestack — a municipal moneymaker that still stands on Lincoln Street — should be transformed into public art and celebrate a remarkable downtown rebound that has occurred in the years since the trash incinerator closed. But while some seem eager to beautify the stack and emphasize its historic role in the city’s development, others loathe that it still towers over downtown as a regrettable remnant of its “Trash Town U.S.A.” reputation. They say it would be a mistake to decorate it.