LIMESTONE (AP) – More votes are required on the base closing commission’s decision to add jobs to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service office. But that isn’t stopping Aroostook County residents from trying to get their foot in the door.

Minutes after Thursday’s vote, telephones were ringing in state Sen. John Martin’s office as people sought information about the new jobs.

If approved, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission’s vote would lift employment at the Limestone accounting center from 353 to at least 600.

Some workers would transfer from other DFAS sites. The remaining jobs would be be advertised to local residents. Accounting technicians receive between $19,650 and $28,670 a year, and certified accountants receive up to $70,480, according to USAJobs.com.

Martin, D-Eagle Lake, said the decision gives hope to people who left Aroostook County to look for jobs but would like to come back.

“A lot of people – maybe as many as 100 people – could come here from other centers but there will be new jobs still left for people living here or for former residents who are looking for a way back to Aroostook County,” he said.

There’s so much demand for jobs that it takes only 9.2 days on average for the DFAS Limestone to fill a job vacancy, the best performance in the entire DFAS system.

A few years ago, when 80 jobs were created as Limestone took on U.S. Air Force bases in Europe, there were five qualified applicants for every job, said Carl Flora, president and CEO of the Loring Development Authority.

“To us, that has always been an indication that there’s a tremendous amount of underemployment that’s still left over after Loring closed,” he said.

The Limestone center was established in 1995 to ease the impact of the shutdown of Loring Air Force Base during an earlier round of base closings. Loring’s closing eliminated 4,500 military jobs and 1,100 civilian jobs.

Workers were angry that the Pentagon would target a facility that was created to offset the earlier closing of another base.

But there was just relief when the base closing commission voted to spare Limestone and two other finance centers slated for closure. All told, the commission voted to reduce the number of accounting centers from 26 to five.

Mark Durinski, president of the union local, realizes two more aye votes are needed – one from President George Bush and another from Congress. In the meantime, though, workers can breath easier.

A day after the vote, the clouds had lifted.

“It was a totally different atmosphere,” he said. “I am cautiously ecstatic, but it’s not a done deal until the next two votes are done. We are on pretty sound footing, but there is still that outside chance.”