Residents of a Harlan County city find themselves without a mayor and facing thousands of dollars of debt. The mayor of Lynch resigned Friday and now city leaders are trying to figure out who will now take his place and how they're going to get out of the hole.

After only 15 months of his term served, former mayor of Lynch, Bob Collier, handed in his resignation Friday at 3 o'clock. Thousands of dollars in unpaid bills continue to pile up and Collier says without a change, the city is in trouble.

Collier says some of the city's unpaid bills go back to 2002, years before he took office.

"Don't really foresee any progress unless they can come up with additional revenue," Collier said.

"We were facing a defect of $200,000 dollars. We paid part of it down, but we still have a large amount outstanding," said Lynch City Council Member John Adams.

To try to pay off the debt, Collier proposed a $20 dollar monthly fee per household.

"That would amount to about $7,000 dollars a month. Of course we're so far behind now I don't know if that would catch it up or not," Collier said.

"We do not have enough income coming in each month to pay down those debts and keep services that we've had in the past," Adams said.

The now former mayor says the city is even out of fuel.

"Police cars, three of them were practically empty. We couldn't get fuel delivered because of a delinquent bill," Collier said.

Over the past few weeks, the police department was reduced from four officers to one. After one officer resigned, the council called for layoffs of two officers.

"They make ordinances and resolutions and it's my duty to enforce them. They say lay them off, I laid them off," Collier said.

He thanks the city for their support in his decision, but says it would not be easy for him to head back to office.

"A lot of things would have to change. I still feel like there's a lot of good I could do for the city, with the cooperation from the council," Collier said.

Collier says under his executive order, he passed the executive functions of the city to the city clerk, Chelsey Adams, until more is resolved.