AUBURN – Mayor John Jenkins will be among the crowd in Washington, D.C., later this month attending Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration.

“I actually have a seat,” Jenkins said. “I don’t know if I’ll be sitting near Oprah, but I have a seat.”

While tickets to the Jan. 20 swearing-in ceremony are free, they must be requested from congressional delegates. Members of the incoming president’s staff decide who can attend, and the Secret Service performs a background check on each person.

Jenkins said he asked Sen. Susan Collins if she could get him a ticket soon after the November election.

“These are very coveted tickets, so I didn’t think my chances were very good,” Jenkins said. “But they put my name in, and I was one that was chosen.”

The tickets, for Jenkins and a guest, are non-transferable and must be collected directly from the senator’s Washington, D.C., office before the event.

Jenkins said he learned that he had a reserved seat last month, but waited to tell people until he had his lodging arrangements settled.

“Getting the invitation is only the first step,” he said. “There will be millions of people staying, and I had no idea if I’d be able to find a place.”

He will be staying in the private residence of a fellow Bates College alum. Jenkins, a 1974 Bates grad, said he was able to find the place to stay through the college’s alumni association.

It will be the second presidential election Jenkins has attended. He sat directly behind the Purple Heart recipients at President Bill Clinton’s second-term inauguration in 1997.

“That was a wonderful place to sit, near very honorable and wonderful people,” Jenkins said. “I don’t know if my seats will be as good this year, but I’m just pleased to be going.”

Now, Jenkins said, he’s working on getting plane tickets to Washington and deciding which inaugural ball he’ll attend.

“I’ve talked to organizers of a couple of them, and I’m trying to figure out which ones the president will actually be attending,” he said.