WILLOW CREEK — By a vote of 3 to 0, the Willow Creek Board of Selectmen this week rejected a proposal to build a McDonald’s restaurant on Route 11 at the northern edge of town.
The franchisee, a Bangor-based operator, had offered to build a 2,400-square-foot restaurant with a drive-through on a two-acre parcel at the intersection of Route 11 and the Island Falls cutoff. The proposal would have created 25 part-time and full-time jobs.
“Twenty-five jobs is not nothing,” said newly elected Selectman Arthur Pendelton, who cast the deciding vote against the proposal. “But those jobs come at a cost. A McDonald’s changes the character of a town. It changes what people see when they drive through. It changes what the town thinks of itself.”
The proposal had divided the community. Supporters argued that Willow Creek needed jobs and tax revenue more than it needed to preserve an aesthetic that was already fading. “We have seven vacant storefronts on Main Street,” said one resident at the public hearing. “A McDonald’s would bring people, traffic, and tax dollars. We can’t afford to be picky.”
Opponents argued that fast-food development would undermine the town’s efforts to attract visitors looking for an authentic small-town experience. “People don’t drive to Willow Creek to eat at McDonald’s,” the Gazette editorialized. “They drive to Willow Creek to get away from McDonald’s.”
The public hearing, held on October 9, drew 120 residents — the largest turnout for a non-budget issue since the Homan’s Pond sale debate in 1973. Speakers were evenly divided, with the final tally showing approximately 55 in favor and 65 opposed.
Selectman Eleanor Vance, who voted with Pendelton, summed up the board’s reasoning: “This town is at a crossroads. We can become a place that looks like every other place, or we can become a place that looks like itself. I choose Willow Creek.”
The franchisee told the Gazette he was disappointed but respected the decision. “I understand the reasoning,” he said. “I just think they passed up an opportunity.”
The Gazette’s editorial captured the prevailing mood: “Willow Creek will not become everytown, USA. Not today. The question is whether we can find a way to survive without it.”