By Carol Coultas,Business Writer
In a sometimes-tribute, sometimes-tribulation, Lewiston says goodbye to Greg Mitchell.

LEWISTON – How does Greg Mitchell like his roast?

Well done, thank you.

The departing development director got his wish Wednesday night when dozens of colleagues and friends turned out to wish him well as he makes the switch from public sector to private. After seven years as Lewiston’s primary public rainmaker, Mitchell accepted a consulting job with the law firm of Eaton Peabody.

And, at a roast in his honor last night, a lot of good-natured ribbing. His height. His penchant for Mountain Dew. His record of demolition. All were fair game.

“To add, sometimes you need to subtract,” said Lincoln Jeffers, parroting one of the lessons Mitchell taught him about economic development. Jeffers, who is filling Mitchell’s position, then segued into a video presentation showing slide after slide of old tenements and industrial buildings being demolished at Mitchell’s direction – more than 300 units in all.

Then the flip side: slide after slide of groundbreakings where Mitchell, at 6 feet 4 inches, was often towering over everyone else in the frame.

Lucien Gosselin said he developed a pinched nerve in his neck during negotiations for the Wal-Mart distribution center. The cause?

“Having to look up to Greg so often,” said the vertically challenged director of the local growth council.

The highlight of the evening came when Jeffers, posing as a broadcaster, interviewed Mitchell as played by Phil Nadeau, deputy city administrator. Nadeau’s dead-on impersonation had people doubled over. But the laughs weren’t all at Mitchell’s expense.

Jeffers asked what it was like, serving under three different city administrators over those seven years. Former City Administrator Bob Mulready left soon after Mitchell arrived in 1998, leaving “no one at the helm,” Nadeau said.

“Then Bob Vitas came in, and still, there was nobody at the helm,” – a jab at the short-timer who replaced Mulready.

Gosselin found himself as the punch line more than once. A former city manager, Gosselin has a reputation for being a tad overbearing.

“You’ve had every damn job in this town,” quipped Vito Carducci, a look-alike to Saturday Night Live’s Father Quido Sarducci, who in real life is state development specialist Ron McKinnon. “I thought you’d be gone by now and half the people in this room wish you were.”

Carducci said the evening should have been billed as a “luke-warming” rather than a roast because of all the nice things people were saying about Mitchell.

Indeed, many of the barbs were sprinkled with references to Mitchell’s achievements. He had a hand in bringing more than $300 million in new investment to the city, which many speakers attributed to his hard work, vision and enthusiasm (enhanced, apparently, by steady consumption of Mountain Dew).

Oxford Network’s Rick Anstey, city attorney Marty Eisenstein, Mayor Lionel Guay and City Administrator Jim Bennett all took a turn at the dais, ribbing Mitchell and lauding him at the same time. Gag gifts from a gold hard hat emblazoned with “The Demo Man” to a pair of rose-colored glasses were offered to a laughing Mitchell.

But the sweetest moments were reserved for family. Opening and closing remarks came from Mitchell’s sons, Jonathan, 11, and Jeff, 16, who spoke with pride about their dad.

It was a tone Mitchell picked up at the night’s end when he took the stage. Rather than take the opportunity to unleash a few barbs of his own, he simply shared the credit for the city’s many advances with his colleagues, both public and private.

“It’s been my honor to serve you,” he said. “Thank you.”

Copy the Story Link