MACHIAS -- Washington County is in around 8 million dollars of debt, something they've been working to rectify. The path to resolving that issue has been muddied further after a bond referendum failed to pass.

County commissioners held a meeting in Machias Thursday to discuss how to move forward after locals voted down that $11 million referendum bond. The county is working with municipalities to encourage them to pay back funds they received from the county in previous years.

"The worst case scenario is that if we have no resolve the county runs out of cash, probably in March," said County Manager Renée Gray. "We are in negotiations with the bank, there are things that are up in the air until we find out how much of that debt we can pay, so we need towns to continue to plan to send us

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