LEWISTON — Mayor Robert E. Macdonald has announced he will run for a third and final term in November.

“My goals are the same: remove the albatross from property taxpayers’ necks by continuing to fight for welfare reform and prevent Lewiston from becoming an experimental sample in a petri dish in which out-of-town social engineers will try to transform our city,” he said.

“We will continue to remove blighted buildings from our landscape and continue the current renaissance of Lisbon Street and our downtown area. Hopefully we will end our community’s isolation by bringing a train to the downtown.”

According to Macdonald, the two achievements he is most proud of during his tenure are the addition of Argo Marketing, “which transformed an eyesore in our downtown into a showplace creating 600 good-paying jobs,” and the renovation of Pettingill Park, a “city-neighborhood partnership which will strengthen the neighborhood and hopefully bring property values up.”

Macdonald is a retired Lewiston police detective. Upon retirement he worked as an educational technician for 10 years at Lewiston Middle School.

During his career with the Police Department, he was a certified arson investigator and a charter member of the Maine Arson Investigator Association. He was also a certified hostage negotiator.

Macdonald and his wife, Virginia, have four children and five grandchildren. He is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Marine Corps League, American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Franco-American War Veterans, the Marine Corps Association, Knights of Columbus and the Elks.

Macdonald grew up in Boston, graduating from Boston English High School in 1966. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps serving as a combat rifleman in Vietnam. 

Macdonald received a bachelor of science degree from Northeastern University in 1975. He also attended Suffolk University.