Casino moves forward, opponents seek recount

OXFORD -- Members of the casino investment group Black Bear Entertainment are preparing to announce the project's location and planning team on Friday, even as opponents have announced plans to initiate a recount of the extremely tight statewide vote.

Sources close to the casino campaign have identified the location as Pigeon Hill, a site which has reportedly been subjected to a water survey to determine whether large amounts of water can be drawn from the local aquifer.

BBE investor Rob Lally, who has been the face of the casino for much of the campaign, says that he's not quite ready to give a formal announcement on the location.

"I will tell you that we are very close to selecting a spot," said Lally. "As of right now, we're not 100 percent. We're tying up some loose ends."

Lally said that, while multiple sites were still in play, "we're focusing on our favorite location."

Lally said that, after completing some "due diligence," the group would be able to make its announcement.

Meanwhile, two groups opposed to the casino proposal submitted more than 100 signatures to the Secretary of State's Office on Tuesday requesting an official recount.

The casino passed with 50.5 percent of the vote, which means that it has a margin of just 1 percent, or 5,500 votes out of about 559,000 votes cast.

"Because of the closeness of the vote - basically a 50-50 split between Maine voters - we feel we owe it to those who have fought for more than 10 years against casinos in Maine to ensure that the vote result is accurate," said Dennis Bailey, of CasinosNO! "What this vote shows is that Maine voters are split on whether we should have more gambling casinos in Maine and, win or lose, this issue will continue to be a divisive one for our state."

Lally said that he wasn't concerned about the recount changing the results indicated by the initial tally.

"I believe it's certainly their right to do so," he said. "But we're confident that we have the votes, and we're eager to get moving forward with creating jobs."

Lally said that, also on Friday, BBE would announce "a number of engineers and consultants that we're going to use to help us with the projects."

He said that the team would include "civil engineers, architects, traffic engineers, soil scientists, wetland scientists, and hydrological engineers."

Lally said that the group is focusing on preliminary planning right now.

"We have to find the site, we have to permit the site, we have to build the site. All of that is at least a year out," said Lally. "The unknowns for us will be working at the town and the state level for permitting. You never know how long that's going to take."

He said the casino would probably begin training for casino employees in the summertime.

"Once we actually put a shovel into the ground, I think that's the time for us to start looking at getting a training facility open and starting to hire people for the site," he said. "The training facility will ultimately be on the site, but that doesn't mean that training doesn't occur in a facility off-site for the first year. There's plenty of places that we can rent to do our training while we build the facility to prepare for us to be open in the most expeditious manner."

Zizi Vlaun, one of the organizers of OHNO1, a local group opposed to the casino, said that the count had to be proven beyond doubt.

"The results of the vote on Question 1 are not decisive," said Vlaun. "We owe it to all the volunteers that worked so hard to defeat the referendum, in spite of the multi-million dollar campaign to pass it, to make sure that the count is accurate. Many small business owners and residents of the Oxford Hills still feel strongly that a casino is not sustainable economic development and remain concerned about the economic and social repercussions for the area."

In a press release on the recount, the casino opponents calculated that BBE had spent over $11 per vote cast in favor of the casino, while the opponents had spent just over $1 per vote cast against it.