FORT KENT – The only certainty leading up to the 2004 Biathlon World Cup in Fort Kent this week was the uncertainty of what to expect.

After hearing for months that the international event could draw spectators numbering in the tens of thousands, downtown businesses geared up for the crowds.

On Friday morning, some of those merchants were still waiting.

“There is a lot more traffic in town,” Rita Cannan, business owner, said Friday. “But we are not as overwhelmed as I would have thought.”

Cannan owns Bee-Jay’s Tavern, a popular local hangout.

“The [biathlon] organizers wanted us to be prepared,” she said. “Business is better than during a normal week [and] you can’t complain about that.”

Cannan said she purchased extra beer and pizzas in anticipation of the World Cup. While she may not sell all of it this week, it will be sold in the weeks ahead, she said.

“There will be no great waste for me,” she said.

Across the street at the River House Restaurant, employees were getting ready for what they hoped would be a lunchtime rush.

“We are just starting to get busy,” Mark Morneault Jr., the restaurant’s manager, said. “It started yesterday and last night. We had it planned out pretty well on what we would need.”

Not so at the China Garden where owners will be left with plenty of extra food but no hard feelings.

“This [biathlon] has been a wonderful event,” Tina Pelletier, the China Garden manager, said. “But in terms of what we were told to expect, it has backfired.”

Pelletier said China Garden will lose money this week with the lack of business. “But we can absorb it,” she said.

The crew at the China Garden has seen new faces, but the regulars are staying away, Pelletier said.

“I think a lot of locals are afraid to come in town [and are] worried about traffic and parking,” she said.

Pelletier is philosophic about the situation.

“No one really knew what to expect, and the organizing committee told us that very honestly,” she said. “They did their best to educate us on what might happen. We have no hard feelings at all – we are happy to have [the World Cup] here.”

Many local civic groups had seen the World Cup as a way to raise funds, and up at the Fort Kent Knights of Columbus Hall, one of the park-and-ride sites in town, crowds were thin.

In fact, Nancy Daigle, a member of the Fort Kent Columbiettes, was meeting buses Friday carrying a sign advertising luncheon specials.

“I carried this in town yesterday,” she said. “People thought I was picketing something.”

Despite the vehicles filling the parking lot, Daigle said their owners were returning from the biathlon venue, getting in their cars and driving away.

“We had to throw some food away yesterday,” she said.

One theory about the lack of patrons in eating establishments around town is the availability of food on site at the World Cup.

The VIP tent is stocked with food specially for dignitaries, volunteers and staff. So, too, are the media center and VIP lounge at the 10th Mountain Division Lodge. A spectators tent includes additional food for sale.

Still others bring their own picnics to the event, while athletes, coaches and their staffs are eating at the athletes village at the University of Maine at Fort Kent.

“Initially we all thought there would not be enough food to go around,” business owner Priscilla Daigle said as she got off the bus at the KC hall. “But we are learning and we want to do this again.”

Unsure of what to expect, Paradis Family Supermarket in Fort Kent stocked its shelves with soda, beer, snacks and other convenience items – much of which has remained unsold.

“We have not been very busy,” Dawn Daigle, store co-owner said Friday. “This really has not affected us at all.”

But Daigle remains a supporter of the biathlon in Fort Kent.

“We are not disappointed at all,” she said. “This is definitely a good thing for the area, [and] since we are not all that busy, our [employees] can have a chance to go and watch the biathlon.”