Bath council election draws former Coastal Journal editor

BATH — Raye Leonard, former editor of the Coastal Journal, will likely be the person to fill the Ward 4 City Council seat vacated after the Jan. 29 death of Bernie Wyman.

Leonard was the only person to submit nomination papers for the position by the March 1 deadline. She will be the sole person on the ballot, listed by her formal name of Rachelle Shelly Leonard.

The Pratt Street resident, 48, is married and has three teenage sons and two stepchildren. A lifelong Bath citizen, she was a freelance news writer, an English teacher in the Maine Community College system, and features editor with the Times Record before joining the Coastal Journal staff in 2013.

Leonard spent 2013-2018 there – first as assistant editor, then editor, and finally editor and general manager – until the Coastal Journal moved from its Bath office to the Times Record office in Brunswick. The Coastal Journal merged with the Mid-Coast edition of The Forecaster March 1.

Wyman, who spent 24 years in the City Council, lived one road over from Leonard, on Chestnut Street.

“I’ve always admired his commitment to the city, and his involvement,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “He’s truly the model of a public servant, and has done a lot for the city.”

That inspiration drove her to run for office, along with her time spent with the Coastal Journal.

“I feel that I can bring the experience of being editor … to the council table, because I was for five years deeply aware of the issues and interests of the city of Bath,” Leonard said.

That role allowed her to be “intimately familiar with Bath’s interests and issues.”

Leonard since August 2018 has been the project administrator with Merrymeeting Adult Education in Topsham.

“I’ve spent the last eight months really focused on learning my new job, so I’m looking forward to becoming re-invested in the concerns of the Bath community.”