Favor Smith (Photo provided)

WILMINGTON — Favor Smith was elected the next Wilmington town supervisor over Timothy Follos by a tight margin Tuesday.

Smith received 318 votes and Follos got 300, according to unofficial results from the Essex County Board of Elections. These numbers include Election Day votes, early votes and some absentee ballots. There are still about 14 unreturned absentee ballots — not enough to sway the results.

“I’m very thankful and grateful to the voters of Wilmington and look forward to working with everyone and addressing the issues the community believes to be vital for Wilmington’s future,” Smith said. “I want to reiterate the promise made to be fair and open-minded and to listen to all voices.”

Smith, 60, ran on the independent Honesty for Wilmington party line. He is an attorney from Lake Placid who moved to Wilmington with his family in 2002. Throughout his campaign, he said that his actions as supervisor would be guided by feedback from the community. When asked in an Oct. 27 candidate questionnaire in the Enterprise why he was seeking public office, he said that he was “ready to give time, experience and skills back to (the) community.” At the core of his messaging was his belief that Wilmington is in a good place; when asked about the “problems” Wilmington faces, he said that he preferred the term “challenges.”

Smith said Tuesday night that his legislative priorities are to finalize updated short-term vacation rental regulations and to ask the planning board to denote any specific concerns they have with the land use code and subdivision regulations. He also said that he wanted to look into the town’s legal fees and “see if we can get those settled quickly.”

Follos will still be active in the town government. He is a member of the Wilmington Town Council, elected in 2021. His four-year term does not expire until the end of 2025, and he will serve on the council alongside newcomer Laura Dreissigacker Hooker and either Darin Forbes or Michelle Preston, pending absentee ballots left to be counted. The Wilmington Town Council race was too close to call on Election Night. Follos campaigned for office alongside Dreissigacker Hooker and Forest “Randy” Winch.

“I’m happy for Laura and the town is lucky to have her,” Follos said. “I am optimistic that the next town board will be able to make progress on the issues that are important to the people who voted for me. I thank them for their support and I thank those who really went above and beyond to get us within a hair of where we need to be, where we wanted to be.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed. I am proud of Randy. It was an honor to have worked with him, and I hope he has a role in Wilmington in the future. It was an honor and a joy to have worked with Laura and Randy over the last six months and we thank our supporters, and we look forward to making progress on the issues they care about. … I congratulate my opponent.”