OXFORD — As the casino vote recount continues, Black Bear Entertainment officials say they face a deluge of inquiries for jobs.

Scott Smith, community development director for Black Bear, said he had received more than 4,200 inquiries through mainecasino.com, about 3,000 of which were from individuals interested in jobs.

“We knew times have not been good in Oxford County, but to really see the depth of the problems that joblessness has caused has been very sobering,” Smith said in a news release.

Black Bear shared a sample of the e-mails received from job-seekers in the past month. They ranged from the jobless to people looking to switch careers.

“I am a stay at home mom and have been having an incredibly hard time finding a job,” an Oxford woman wrote. A teacher in Jay was looking to leave the profession for a casino job. A Lewiston man laid off two years ago said he voted for the casino and would take any job they had. A Canton resident with a master’s degree in business wanted to join “as soon as possible.”

Smith called the wide range of applicants “a validation” of the region’s need for new business.

“I’d be interested in applying for a position with the casino or one of the contractors hired to build it,” a Paris man wrote. He said he had worked building mobile homes until he lost his job three years ago.

Smith said he was building a database of applicants, divided by skills and the kinds of jobs they’re seeking. He said Black Bear would contact them with a list of open positions for which to apply when the casino nears completion.

Could hurt other businesses

But local casino opponents say the resort could drain established jobs by killing area businesses as fast as it provides new ones.

Scott Vlaun, a director of Oxford Hills No on 1 and Moose Pond Arts and Ecology, said the casino could take away existing jobs if residents spent their disposable income at the casino rather than at local businesses.

According to Vlaun, many Norway businesses are already struggling to stay afloat.

“Once people start running up to the casino on Friday night and blowing their money they had for the week to buy that coffee,” he said, it could be the tipping point that shutters local business.

Vlaun said he was frustrated when people accused his group of not caring about the jobless. “We’re trying to save the jobs that we’ve got first and foremost,” he said.

Relying on a single business to revitalize the area was putting too many eggs in one basket, he said.

“If the casino fails due to a faltering national economy, or a spike in gasoline prices, or any other reason, it could leave us with hundreds of newly unemployed, which is happening in other casino-reliant economies,” Vlaun said. “This will leave us in a more desperate position than we are right now.”

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