OKLAHOMA CITY — Officials in Stillwater said Monday they’re happy to hear boat engine maker Mercury Marine could be moving hundreds of jobs to their city, even if they sympathize with a Wisconsin city that may be losing those jobs.

Mercury Marine said Sunday it intends to move the jobs to Stillwater after a union rejected a contract proposal that would have kept the jobs at the company’s Fond du Lac plant. The company wanted to consolidate operations in one of the two towns.

Josh McKim, the executive director of economic development for the Stillwater Chamber of Commerce, said it’s been difficult for local officials as they waited for the company’s decision, knowing that Stillwater could have lost about 385 jobs if the company had decided in favor of Fond du Lac.

"We were on pins and needles all last week, waiting on not just the company but the union in Fond du Lac to see what their actions would be," McKim said. Stillwater has a nonunion plant.

McKim said Stillwater officials have been working with the company — one of the town’s largest private-sector employers — for about a year and that while details remain that must be worked out, "there is definitely a big sense of relief." He said he sympathizes with Fond du Lac officials, but that he believes Stillwater is the best location for the company.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 1947 in Fond du Lac rejected the contract proposal in an Aug. 23 vote. Mercury Marine said the proposal was its "best and final" offer. It said the deal did not involve pay cuts, but the union said workers were asked to give up 2 percent raises in each of the last two years of their current contract. The concessions also called for lower wages for new hires and workers called back from layoffs and changes in work rules and pension benefits.

The union, which represents about 850 workers at Mercury Marine, scrapped plans Sunday for a last-minute, second vote on a new contract after the company said it wouldn’t honor ballots cast after midnight Saturday.

The company issued a statement early Sunday saying it will continue to operate the Fond du Lac plant under the terms of the existing contract, which expires in 2012. But it also said it would begin planning to move jobs from Fond du Lac to Stillwater.