OXFORD — Those living near the casino site announced Friday are cautiously optimistic.

At Friday’s news conference, three people who live on Rabbit Valley Road across the street from the site spoke up and said they were never contacted about the site.

Connie Lyons said she wished she’d been told, but said the casino had her support.

“It’s such an area that we really do need jobs,” Lyons said. She said her son was on unemployment for 99 weeks before finally taking a late-night shift at an Auburn restaurant.

Lyons said she wasn’t concerned about how the casino’s proximity to her house would affect her.

At the Hall family farm across Route 26 from the casino site, Suzanne Hall sat on her front porch and watched as investors showed journalists around.

Hall said she believed the casino was good for Oxford, but she was concerned about it being so close. “It’s probably going to change our lifestyle,” Hall said. “I hope not, because my son makes his living off this farm.” The farm was passed down from her father, she said.

The Halls were using a patch of the land on the northeast corner of the site, formerly owned by Evan Thurlow, to grow vegetables for their farm stand. She said Black Bear would let them use the land for five more years as they develop other parts of the lot.

Lyons’ next-door neighbors, Mark and Taanya Pillsbury, were also at the news conference. Taanya Pillsbury said they’d seen crews on the land for weeks taking soil samples.

“We had a conflicting feeling on it,” she said, but in the end, she and Mark voted “yes,” while hoping it wouldn’t hurt their property value.

For Suzanne Hall, the worst part is waiting, wondering how the casino may affect her family.

“I just wish it could happen sooner,” she said. “This suspense … ”

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