Three Minutes on a Park Bench With: William Legault

We caught up with Salem City Councillor-at-Large William Legault as part of our new virtual Patch Park Bench column. 

Patch: What's your morning routine? 

William: Depends on the day, I frequently have training clients at the gym beginning at 5:30 AM. On those days I am out and about early. On non-client weekdays I usually spend the morning checking messages and working on writing projects.

P: What do you do for a living? And what's the best thing about your job?

W: I am the ultimate man of many hats. Writing is my priority, mostly the technical type right now, personal training and I've been know to tend bar around town when the right situation is available. I also do some consulting for a local lawyer when people are looking for local business locations. There is also this little gig on the Salem City Council. The best thing about my JOBS is that I am able to cobble everything together and make it work.

P: What's the hardest?

W: The technical writing. It can be incredibly dry and very tedious. I sometimes have to drag myself kicking and screaming to the keyboard.

P: How long have you lived in Salem? 

W: Most of my life. Born, raised, schooled and then fifteen years or so in the either in the military or exploring other parts of the country. I've lived in New Hampshire, Montana, Colorado, and Arizona with fairly long stints in Asia and Europe.

P: What's your favorite thing about living here?

W: The fact that this city is constantly changing. It is not the place that I left in 1979, nor is it the same city I returned to in 1997. It evolves, it grows, it has become a living entity with all that comes with that progress including the growing pains. It exciting to experience the vibrancy.

P: If you had to arrange a secret meeting here, where would you have it?

W: Meet me at the Ward 8 Cafe and we'll talk about it.

P: Tell us something about yourself that most of your neighbors don't know.

W: Very few know that in High School I ran a 4:40 mile and a sub 10 minute 2-mile and clocked a .57 second quarter as the anchor in a mile-relay.. That was 70 pounds and a lot of red hair ago.

P: When you want a really indulgent snack here, where do you go and what do you get?

W: I'm not really into sweets but if I had to it would be off to Cafe Graziani for some of Giovanni's Tiramasu.

P: What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?

W: Don't waste time trying to be who you are not. Be yourself.

P: What are you doing after this interview?

W: Finishing up a biography for a client for his new business website.

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Nominate someone from your community for the Patch Park Bench interview. Send suggestions to owen.boss@patch.com.