WILLOW CREEK — Seven empty storefronts line Main Street between the Gazette building and the former Pendelton’s Hardware, a stretch of downtown that once housed a pharmacy, a barber shop, a diner, a shoe repair shop, a dry cleaner, a furniture store and a five-and-dime.
What to do with them has become the central question in a debate over whether tourism can — or should — be the engine that brings Willow Creek’s downtown back to life.
The issue surfaced at last week’s Board of Selectmen meeting when Eleanor Vance proposed a tax-incentive program for small tourism-related businesses to occupy the vacant spaces: guide services, bike rentals, galleries, cafes.
“We have people coming to town for the foliage, for the Ice-Out, for the Dry Dock, and they walk up Main Street and see boarded-up windows,” Vance said. “That is not the impression we want to leave.”
But Stu Peller, general manager of Willow Creek Custom Flooring, pushed back, arguing that tourism is seasonal and fragile.
“The Dry Dock is doing well because Dean is an exceptional chef,” Peller said. “But you cannot turn Main Street into a seasonal souvenir corridor and call it a recovery. We need year-round businesses that serve the people who live here.”
The debate reflects a tension felt across rural Maine, where towns that lost manufacturing and retail to big-box stores and online shopping are grappling with whether hospitality and recreation can fill the gap.
Maeve O’Donnell, whose General Store has survived by adapting, said the answer is not binary.
“People come to town for the trail or the foliage, and they walk in here to buy a sandwich or a fishing license,” O’Donnell said. “That’s tourism commerce. But I also sell hardware and canned goods to the people who live here. The same transaction can serve both purposes. The question is whether we have enough people to support enough stores.”
The selectmen tabled Vance’s proposal for further study. A public forum is scheduled for June 5 at the Community Hall.