BIDDEFORD — Just over five weeks on the job and City Manager Jim Bennett is feeling at home in Biddeford.

“We’re really happy to be here,” Bennett said Tuesday, speaking for himself, his wife and his two college-aged children. “We’re so happy to be back in southern Maine.”

Although Biddeford’s population is more than double that of Presque Isle – where Bennett last served as city manager, starting in 2010 – the 54-year-old Lisbon native said that “it’s not a huge learning curve” given his extensive track record in municipal government, which started when he was elected as a selectmen in his hometown at just 21 years old; he served two three-year terms on that board.

Since then, Bennett, who has a master’s degree in business administration and undergraduate degrees in business administration and accounting, has served as the town manager in Dixfield, New Gloucester and Old Orchard Beach. He also served as the city administrator in Westbrook and Lewiston, which has about 15,000 more people than Biddeford, and as the interim town manager in Sabattus, before becoming Presque Isle’s city manager.

Bennett said, coincidentally, it was John Bubier, then Lisbon’s town manager, who convinced him to become a town manager instead of going into the private sector. “John’s been sort of a mentor for me for a long time,” he said.

Bubier became Biddeford’s city manager in 2005, helming the city through an enormous amount of economic growth and downtown revitalization. Now, filling Bubier’s shoes, Bennett hopes to continue that growth and further change the image of the city – not only for outsiders but also for its own citizens.

“The single most important goal that I have is that we want everybody in the community to recognize Biddeford as a cutting-edge, innovative community that’s doing a lot of things right,” he said. “We want the citizens in the community to be more proud of living in the community tomorrow than they are today.”

Bennett said his immediate goals – as the city enters an election season in which the mayoral and all nine City Council seats are up for grabs – include ensuring whoever holds those seats come January can effectively communicate with one another and work together to move the city in a positive direction.

“I think local government and citizens generally judge their elected officials by the way they interact with each other, especially when they don’t agree,” he said.

With all the positive things happening in Biddeford, Bennett said he recognizes that there are serious problems facing the community too, such as a growing epidemic of heroin and opioid addiction and abuse.

Bennett said drug abuse is a problem the city has been quietly addressing for some time, and citizens can expect to hear more from city officials on the issue in the near future – as early as the next council meeting, which is scheduled for the first Tuesday in October.

“It’s like all complicated societal problems,” Bennett said of drug abuse. “The answer is not a government answer. It’s got to be a community answer where the government is a major player.”

One of the first major events Bennett attended as Biddeford’s city manager was last Saturday’s dedication of the pedestrian bridge that links the mill districts of Biddeford and Saco over the Saco River, which officials from both cities have hailed as a symbol of the two communities’ willingness to work together as they develop their respective downtowns.

When asked how he plans to work with Saco, Bennett said while “friendly competition” between the two cities is fine, he stressed that it’s important for positive things to happen in both communities.

“We obviously need to be in a situation where both communities say it’s great if we can have something positive happen within our own borders, but if it can’t happen here we want it to happen across the bridge,” he said. “And if it can’t happen in one of these cities, we hope it can happen in York County, and if it can’t happen in York County, we hope it can happen in Maine.”

As for his personal life, Bennett said he looks forward to clowning more now that he’s living in southern Maine.

A member of the Kora Shrine Klowns in Lewiston, Bennett has been clowning as “GinJo” – a portmanteau of his mother’s name, Ginger, and Joe Graziano, a longtime Italian restaurant owner in Lisbon – since 2001. He has even won some international competitions for his costume, makeup, skits and balloon-making skills.

“It’s a little different than the average hobby for a city manager,” he admitted, but added, “It’s an important part of who I am and what I do.”

— Staff Writer Angelo J. Verzoni can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or [email protected].