WILLOW CREEK — Arthur Pendelton was elected First Selectman of Willow Creek in a landslide victory on Tuesday, running on a platform that promised to fill the empty storefronts on Main Street and accelerate the town’s transition from a mill economy to a tourism-based economy.

Pendelton, 52, defeated incumbent Harold “Hap” Whitcomb, who had held the position for 14 years. The election was widely seen as a generational shift in town leadership.

“I grew up in this town when the mill was still running, and I watched it close,” Pendelton said in his victory speech. “I watched my father’s hardware store close its doors in 1961 and stand empty for thirty-six years. I do not want to watch another generation of Willow Creek children grow up thinking that empty buildings are the natural state of Main Street.”

Pendelton’s platform centered on three initiatives: expanding the Mattawamkeag River Trail’s marketing to attract out-of-state visitors, creating a tax incentive program for new Main Street businesses, and pursuing state and federal grants for downtown infrastructure improvements.

“We have a trail that people drive hours to use, but when they finish their hike, they get back in their cars and drive to Houlton for lunch,” Pendelton said. “We have a mill that produces the finest quarter-sawn oak in New England, but the people who work there live in Bangor because there is nothing to do here after shift. That has to change.”

The Gazette endorsed Pendelton, calling him “the most qualified candidate for the town’s most difficult job.” Clara Winslow wrote: “Arthur Pendelton was at every grant hearing, every public meeting, every bridge inspection. He knows that the work of revitalizing a small town is not glamorous. It is attending meetings, filing paperwork, and showing up.”

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