Financial scrutiny appears to be an early theme for Washington County in the new year, as does recognition about how hard the experience of setting
right the county's 2025 debt has been for county residents and staff members.
Commissioner David Burns was apologetic Wednesday about offending people as the county worked through its plan to determine the size of its debt and come up with a plan, as painful as it was, to pay it down and reset for 2026.
While he is sorry he offended people, Burns is not apologetic about strict adherence to the budget and ensuring the county does not spend beyond its means. He wants the county's line-item budgets honored and department heads to come to commissioners for spending approval of anything beyond their day-to-day operational budgets, no matter the dollar amount.
"We should be managing our money," he said, and he appears determined to make that happen.
Apologies from public officials can be a rare thing, as can be expressions of gratitude.
Commissioner Courtney Hammond, who attended numerous special town meetings and met with multiple select boards across the county last fall to explain how the commissioners intended to resolve the 2025 debt, said he found residents cordial in those meetings.
They sure weren't happy, he said, but they were considerate and respectful in hearing him out. So, "thank you," he said. The county's deadline to pay the 2025 debt is now about a month away and the commission will meet again Jan. 29 to finalize its payment plan.
As we continue our commitment to covering local news we are interested in working with people who want to cover local news in their communities but need some journalism training to get started.
The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting is joining Journalism New England’s Career Lab on a three‑month local journalism program to provide hands‑on training for aspiring community reporting fellows who will contribute to The Maine Monitor’s Monitor Local coverage for our western Maine and Downeast newsletters.
The training program is a great opportunity to learn the foundations of journalism and have an opportunity to work directly with an editor on reporting, interviewing, writing and story revisions.
Fellows will cover town council meetings, school budget debates, zoning discussions, tax deliberations and more. Their work may be published by Monitor Local and Journalism New England during the training period, with the potential for continued paid contributions to Monitor Local.
More information about the program, along with a link to apply, is available here.
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