WISCASSET (AP) – Voters in Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties approved a referendum Tuesday to finance a new jail that would serve both counties.

Voters in 29 midcoast communities voted on whether to approve borrowing $24.6 million to fund a 120-bed jail in Wiscasset on a 70-acre parcel off Route 1. The one-story, 87,000-square-foot facility would be operated by the Lincoln and Sagadahoc Multi-County Jail Authority.

To gain approval, the jail funding had to receive a majority of voters in both Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties.

In Sagadahoc County, the measure was approved 8,938 to 5,852. In Lincoln County, the vote was 8,767 to 7,189.

Sagadahoc County is the only county in Maine without its own jail.

This week, 28 inmates Sagadahoc County inmates had to be moved from Kennebec County Jail, where they were being boarded, because of a staffing shortage there. The inmates are now at Cumberland County Jail.

Lincoln County’s jail, which opened in 1985, has been overcrowded for years.

AP-ES-11-05-03 1037EST