Adam Lee: Serving and running

AUBURN — Adam Lee is running for something this fall.

In the meantime, he’s just plain running, a 5K at a time.

Lee, 37, an attorney at Trafton, Matzen, Belleau & Frenette, LLP, lives now in Auburn but grew up in Manchester, New Hampshire, and Houston, Texas.

“My dad’s from Madawaska and most of his family still lives in Madawaska,” said Lee. “I went to law school in Vermont, so I slowly, after Texas, worked my way back here.

“There is an appeal that Lewiston-Auburn has in particular for me,” he said. “I have a soft spot in my heart, being from Manchester, for mill towns. The path that Manchester’s taken is one I think we’re slowly working our way down. Hopefully, we can make it all the way through to be a fully revived and vibrant downtown mill town.”

Lee served as an Auburn city councilor from 2013 to 2015 and didn’t run for re-election. When Councilor Tina Gilbert announced this winter that she was moving from that ward, Lee took out papers to temporarily fill the seat again. He doesn’t have any opponents in the special election set for next week.

The term for that Ward 4 seat is up in November. Lee said he’ll be running “for something” this fall. Asked if it would be Ward 4 again, he laughed.

“I can neither confirm nor deny that,” Lee said. “I enjoy public service. A lot of people sit around and complain about what’s going on, but especially for people my age and those of us who are under 40, I feel like oftentimes we aren’t well represented in our municipal government and it’s incumbent upon us, despite our busy schedules and busy lives, to serve.”

Lee has sat on a number of boards, including the Lewiston Education Fund and the Lewiston Auburn Economic Growth Council.

For fun, he and wife Heidi have a goal of running 5Ks in all 50 states before age 50. They’ve done 15 so far and plan on knocking off three more this summer in New Hampshire, Vermont and Virginia.

“There are places you’d never go if you didn’t have some reason to go there,” said Lee. “We went to Wichita, Kansas, on a whim one long weekend and it’s kind of a cool place.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com

“Those of us who are under 40, I feel like oftentimes we aren’t well represented in our municipal government and it’s incumbent upon us, despite our busy schedules and busy lives, to serve.”