BANGOR (AP) – Kent Inc., which filed for bankruptcy last December, will finish its final order for children’s sleepwear at a manufacturing plant in the Dominican Republic instead of Fort Kent.

The company on Friday received U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval to allow a Chicago-based manufacturer to complete the last two shipments of blanket sleepers at its plant in the Caribbean.

When that happens, up to 70 of Kent’s 109 employees could lose their jobs in the next few weeks as production on one shipment of the order winds down, and the raw materials for the other two orders are shipped to the Dominican Republic.

Fort Kent Town Manager Donald Guimond said he expected that when the raw materials were shipped to the Kent Inc. plant, they would leave as finished products – not as raw materials.

The shipments represent about one-third of a $4 million order by Costco Inc., a chain of discount warehouse stores.

The move is disheartening for a town that had received assurances from Kent’s management that an investor was being sought to rescue the bankrupt company from its financial woes. Memos were sent to employees that encouraged them to “hang in there” because talks with a half-dozen investors or buyers were going well.

“Anytime you have a possibility of losing jobs, it’s a negative,” Guimond said. “There’s a little bit of mixed emotions, there’s a little bit of anger. Everything’s a bit unknown right now.”

Kent employs 109 people, with more than 100 of them in Fort Kent. At least 30 of those workers are performing contract work for Creative Apparel, a Belfast company that leases space at Kent’s plant and produces apparel for the U.S. Air Force.

While Kent is ending production in the next few weeks, it still owns the building in Fort Kent.

The company began discussions Friday with the Northern Maine Development Commission, the town of Fort Kent and KeyBank, the primary lien holder on the building, to come up with a way to transfer or sell the facility to a municipal entity or group of investors, and then lease it to Creative Apparel.

Michael Fagone, a Portland attorney representing Kent, said the company wants to settle matters pertaining to the building as fast as it can so the town can pursue another company to lease space in it alongside Creative Apparel.

“Kent’s going to work as hard as it can to get a deal done to preserve as many jobs as it can at the facility,” he said.

The plant has operated for 40 years under several owners and has closed before.

Gerber Childrenswear Inc. shut down the plant in 1996 after moving its manufacturing capacity to Texas. Kent took over the 115,000 square-foot facility several months later.