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Nearly every Washington County Commission meeting for more than six months has focused on strategies to resolve the county’s 2025 debt and correct poor financial procedures across departments as the county looks toward the future.
Commissioners are still working through the final details of retiring that debt as they prepare to borrow a tax anticipation note for 2026, but if Thursday’s meeting agenda is any indication, they also appear ready to return to the more routine business of running county government.
Commissioners are scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. Thursday, and there are a couple of notable items on the agenda.
One is a public meeting to discuss proposed replacement of the Mill Stream (Pecky Brook) Bridge in Centerville Township. The Maine Department of Transportation now classifies the bridge as “structurally deficient” and says it meets only minimum tolerable limits in its current condition.
The bridge was built in 1948, and a 2022 MDOT inspection found that the bank is beginning to slump, there is heavy scaling and wide cracks in the culverts and bridge foundations are considered unstable. MDOT noted in its inspection that the bridge does not meet acceptable standards for adequate guardrails and there is widespread damage along the embankment.
The public is invited to attend the meeting so county officials can hear concerns about the bridge and answer questions about the replacement project.
Commissioners are also expected to open bids for 73 Broadway St. in Machias, a 15-acre property that Healthy Acadia, a nonprofit community health organization, has leased from the county since January 2023. Healthy Acadia pays $30 a year to lease the property.
When the lease was signed, the land was intended to be used for a garden in partnership with the Washington County Jail to grow food for the jail and local food banks. According to the request for proposals, the property must be purchased for at least $140,000, and bidders are required to continue leasing the land to Healthy Acadia under the current terms.
The lease ends Dec. 31, 2032. The deadline for commissioners to receive bids is 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, and they intend to award a bid at their meeting Thursday.
We have been covering the Washington County Commission since Monitor Local launched in November, and we will be at Thursday’s meeting to report on commissioners’ decisions.
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