Port Gibson’s police department was reactivated Monday after the city paid an overdue workers’ compensation insurance bill that had prompted Mayor Fred Reeves to send officers home from Friday through Sunday.

The $6,898 check renewed Port Gibson’s coverage through the Mississippi Municipal Service Company, which will pay medical expenses of city workers who are injured on the job.

According to Reeves, the MMSC notified the city last week that its payment was two months overdue, and that none of the city’s workers compensation claims would be processed until its premium was received.

On Friday, Reeves sent the police home and told other city workers responsible for cleaning downtown streets not to work over the weekend in order to avoid the possibility of injury until the annual premium could be paid.

No city workers were injured during the nearly three months between the policy’s Oct. 1 renewal date and Monday’s payment, Reeves said. 

The mayor said that he told Claiborne County Sheriff Frank Davis, whose department’s jurisdiction includes Port Gibson, that city officers would not be working over the weekend.  The Sheriff’s Department agreed to step up patrols in the city and take calls to the police, Reeves said.  Davis did not return messages seeking comment.

Reeves said that closing the police department was risky and unfortunate, but necessary.

“I had no choice,”  he said.  “The city couldn’t afford the things that could have happened.”

However, it was not clear whether the MMSC would have refused to cover medical expenses incurred over the weekend by Port Gibson employees given eventual payment of the policy’s premium by the city.

Marion Alford, an MMSC official responsible for supervising members’ accounts, said that Port Gibson’s policy had not been canceled.  He added that Port Gibson’s tardy payment was “not a huge deal.”

“We realize,” Alford said, “that cities are having difficult times generating revenues.  We will continue to work with them with that in mind.”  Alford declined to comment, however, on what would have happened if a Port Gibson employee had filed a claim on the basis of an injury suffered during the two months during which the city’s workers’ compensation coverage had not been renewed.

The workers’ compensation insurance renewal payment came due about nine months after Reeves took office. He said that he did not know why the bill, which is normally presented to him by the town clerk for his signature, was not paid. 

“Somebody forgot to pay the bill is the only way I can explain what happened,” he said.

Reeves said that responsibility for the mishap may be discussed at a working session of the city board that was slated this morning.

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Contact Ben Bryant at bbryant@vicksburgpost.com.