BANGOR (AP) – Several municipalities across Maine are letting it be known that they would like to be considered as a potential site for an L.L. Bean call center.

The Freeport-based outdoors outfitter last week canceled plans to build a new 50,000-square-foot call center in a business park in Oakland over fears of a shortage of qualified workers.

The company made the decision after T-Mobile USA wireless company announced it would open a call center with 700 employees in the same business park.

Now, economic development officials from Sanford to Bangor and Brewer say they are prepared to pitch the assets of their municipalities.

“I called them up and told them I was interested,” said Drew Sachs, economic developer for the city of Brewer. “They said thank you and that they’ll be notifying their (site selection) team about including us on the list.”

L.L. Bean spokesman Rich Donaldson said the company will take its time deciding the next step while evaluating its options. He said a decision will play out over the next few weeks and perhaps into January.

In the meantime, municipal officials are prepared to show pictures of vacant buildings and vacant land, depending on L.L. Bean’s needs. They are ready to talk about telephone lines, broadband communications and available work force within roughly a 45-minute drive, a commute most Maine workers are willing to take for a good job.

For its now-halted call center in Oakland, L.L. Bean had said it would need about 800 seasonal workers in addition to 240 or so year-round employees.

“We would love it in Bangor, but anywhere near Bangor would be great,” said Bangor City Councilor Dan Tremble. “We’re ready to do what we can to help L.L. Bean out.”

Sanford wants the call center, too. “If they’re looking, we’re here,” said Sanford Town Manager Mark Green.

The towns that want L.L. Bean will have to demonstrate that they have workers. What L.L. Bean will have to do is show that it is willing to pay a competitive wage, said Charles Colgan, a professor at the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie Institute.

The wage demands would probably not be as high if a call center were located north of Augusta, Colgan said.

“The Maine labor force is pretty tight in a lot of places,” he said. “In the Bangor area and north of Augusta, I don’t think the labor market is tight enough to push wages up to a sustainable level. On a broad scale, I don’t think all of the slack has been wrung out of the labor market in northern Maine.”

Gov. John Baldacci wants to keep the focus on the Augusta-Waterville area. L.L. Bean already has a 220-person call center in Waterville.

But one thing the governor will not do is tell L.L. Bean where exactly it should go, said spokesman Lee Umphrey.

“We cannot pit communities against each other,” he said. “L.L. Bean will make a reasonable business decision.”