Maine’s Oxford casino is mulling seeking to expand by adding a hotel, a 275-seat multipurpose room and increasing food and beverage by 100 percent.
This followed a presentation to the casino’s planning board by Civil engineer Robert Berry of Main-Land Development Consultants. The plans he presented were not complete, but “pretty close by this point,” he said.
Board members said that he was providing them with a lot of information and that they needed time before making the decision to go forward.
Churchill Downs, which bought the casino in 2013, is proposing the expansion, which would also include a three-story 106-room hotel, and an expansion of the gaming area. The company would like to begin work in August aiming at a soft opening a year from now.
The casino planning board is expected to vote on the proposal on May 12.
Meanwhile, in a separate but related development the Maine Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on an appeal by proponents of a petition that would put a referendum on the ballot to allow a casino in York County.
Earlier Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy ruled in favor of the Secretary of State’s Office that determined that the Horseracing Jobs Fairness campaign had failed to submit the 62,000 valid signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. The campaign is challenging the methodology used in determining if the signatures are valid. The decision invalidated 55,776 signatures of the 91,294 that were turned in.
The attorney for the appellants, Bruce Merrill, argues that Murphy made a legal mistake in her ruling that can’t be reconciled to earlier decision she made, over an initiative that would legalize marijuana in the state.
