PORTLAND – As New York prepared to mark the end of the recovery effort at the World Trade Center, a poll showed the vast majority of Maine residents feel a sense of normalcy has returned after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The poll by Strategic Marketing Services shows that 87 percent of respondents feel that everyday life in their communities is back to normal. That’s an increase of 11 percentage points from a poll taken last October.

Furthermore, 60 percent of respondents feel the state is either “very” or “somewhat” prepared to handle a terrorist attack.

Patrick Murphy, president of Strategic Marketing Services, said people haven’t forgotten the attacks, but they feel better about preparations made by state officials to deal with an incident in the future.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say [Maine residents] have put it behind them. But I would say that there’s certainly a much higher confidence level that the state has prepared itself better against an act of terrorism,” Murphy said.

The random survey of 400 registered voters was conducted May 10-14 as part of the quarterly Omnibus Poll by Strategic Marketing Services. The margin of error was plus or minus 5 percentage points.

The results were released Wednesday, the day before the final ceremony marking the end of the recovery at the site of the collapse of the twin towers.

On Thursday, the last column, a 30-foot beam, will be removed from the site in a procession past an honor guard. The ceremony will begin at 10:29 a.m., the time at which that the first tower collapsed on Sept. 11.

Among other findings, the poll indicated almost half of Maine residents surveyed don’t want casino gambling and that a majority believes Roman Catholic leaders have done a poor job of handling the priest abuse scandal.

On the casino issue, 47 percent of respondents said they opposed the introduction of casino gambling, while 39 percent supported the idea. Another 14 percent did not have an opinion.

The level of support grew 9 percentage points when the question was altered to ask if respondents would support casino gambling as an economic stimulus tool in northern Maine.

There is no active proposal for a casino on the table. Two tribes withdrew a proposal for a casino during the last legislative session, but they plan to resubmit a proposal next year.

On the issue of priest abuse, 59 percent of respondents said Catholic leaders in Maine have done a poor job – either “very poorly” or “fairly poorly” – of handling the situation.

The level of support for the leadership was higher among Catholics. Among Catholic respondents, 46 percent said leaders have done “fairly well,” compared to 30.5 percent of the respondents as a whole.