MILLINOCKET – A new telemarketing call center will open here on May 30 with 24 employees selling Cancun and Costa Rica vacations to customers in the U.S., Canada and Great Britain.

Probably the single largest employer to open in the Katahdin region in at least five years, Cancun Travel Unlimited hopes to create as many as 65 full-time jobs by Jan. 1, according to Mel Gould III, the company’s operations director.

Gould, a former town police officer and former resident of Cancun and Florida who has moved back to town, told the Town Council about his plans during a presentation at a council meeting on Thursday.

The 24 employees have been training since May 12 at the Katahdin Business and Conference Center on Spring Street, he said. If all goes well, that number will increase to about 45 full-time workers within 90 days and to 65 if plans to add a customer service center develop, said Gould.

He and his brother Bill Gould, 46, a Katahdin Paper Co. worker, and their father, Mel Gould II, both of Millinocket, operating as G&G Marketing LLC of Millinocket, have bankrolled the project themselves with more than $80,000, they said.

“I wanted to come back and bring something back to the community I grew up with,” Gould told the council. “It’ll be the first time I have seen snow in 15 years.

“I find it very exciting because I haven’t been here since 1987,” he added, saying that he loved the idea of employing Millinocket people “because I know it’s really needed now.”

The region has seen unemployment levels at twice the state average and witnessed a record population exodus due to a devastating mill bankruptcy that shrank the mill’s workforce from about 1,500 workers in 2002 to 150 today.

Councilors welcomed the news Thursday.

“I know you had some postponements and went through quite a bit. We will do anything we can to move you along and help you with your business,” Councilor Jimmy Busque said. “This is something new and exciting. A lot of young people [from the area] are very excited about working there. It’s a huge benefit to them. We are all benefiting from this.”

“It’s extremely exciting to have someone part of the bigger tourism picture breathe some excitement in this area,” said Town Councilor Matthew Polstein, who hopes to start building the first portion of his proposed $65 million ecotourism resort this year. “Welcome. We wish you the very best of luck.”

Of the 24 workers already hired, 16 will be telemarketing salesmen paid minimum wage plus commissions. Mel Gould III said each salesman should gross at a minimum $500 to $550 a week and that the most successful salesperson should gross $800 to $1,000 a week.

Clerical workers will start at minimum wage and increase to $10 an hour quickly, he said. The first promotions to management positions will occur in 30 days, he added.

The salesmen will be selling vacations, timeshares and real estate in and around Cancun and Plaja Del Carmen, Mexico, for seven resorts owned by The Sunset Group, plus another resort in Costa Rica, Gould said. Cancun Travel Unlimited has been in business for more than 25 years.

Convinced to open a call center in town by his father, Gould had more than a return home in mind, he said. More than 1,000 such call centers operate in greater Orlando, where Cancun Travel Unlimited is based and where the competition drives costs up considerably.

Moving to Millinocket, where living expenses are nowhere near as pricey as in Florida, allows his workers and his business to make good money, Gould said.

The biggest hitch so far, the Goulds said, has been getting telephone and Internet hookups into their new third-floor home at 70 Spring St.

The telemarketing will not involve cold calling potential new customers, but instead will be limited to contacting former and present customers, Gould said. He said the center should average about 1,000 to 1,200 inbound calls a day.

The Goulds are confident they will draw enough competent employees from the area to fill positions. The company is still hiring and interested applicants should call 723-4953. Sales experience is preferred but not necessary, Bill Gould said.