MACHIAS — Washington County’s new financial accountant, hired to give the county some continuity in keeping financial records, will begin work today.

Cori Collins of Machias, a graduate of the University of Maine, was hired last week by Commissioners Norman Nelson and Edward Cline to fill the newly created 40-hour-a-week position.

Collins was the county selection committee’s unanimous choice, recommended to the commissioners from a field of five candidates, and will be supervised by elected county Treasurer Carmen Look.

Nelson said the position of full-time accountant will enable the county to retain a continuity in the county’s financial records, because “Collins will not be subject to the political uncertainties that may be created by periodic countywide elections.”

Look, who will work 12 hours each week as a professional overseer of the Treasurer’s Office, will continue to hold elective office and is expected to face her first primary election in June as a Republican.

For several years in the early 1990s, the county’s finances were in disarray because of the lack of continuity that resulted from having a series of different people in the treasurer’s job. Five different treasurers have served the county since 1990.

In 1992, the commissioners proposed making the treasurer’s position an appointed one, but the referendum failed.

Also in the November 1994 election, the county commissioners proposed a referendum that called for voters to abolish the position of elected county treasurer.