Two months after obtaining an emergency $500,000 line of credit from an out-of-state bank to pay bills, Port Gibson city officials have applied for two more emergency loans totalling about $425,000 to repair aging water and sewer infrastructure, Mayor Fred Reeves said Friday.

One application is with the Mississippi Department of Health for $195,510 to repair water lines, and the other is with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality for $230,000 for the sewer system, Reeves said. He hopes to have approvals in five to 10 days.

The Board of Aldermen met in a called session Thursday to approve resolutions allowing the borrowing.

If approved, the loans will increase Port Gibson’s indebtedness to nearly $3 million, including about $1.9 million the city still owes from a loan incurred during the administration of former mayor Amelda Arnold, Reeves said earlier this year.

Payments on that indebtedness cost Port Gibson close to $15,000 a month, Reeves said.

In addition, on June 6 the city took out a $500,000 line of credit from Concordia Bank and Trust in Vidalia, La. About $150,000 was immediately borrowed to pay past-due electric bills and employee retirement contributions. It was not clear if additional draws had been made on the line, which must be repaid by March 15, even if it means increasing taxes, according to the terms.

Since taking office in 2008, Reeves, who has no vote on the board, has opposed borrowing to keep the city in business but said the latest round of emergency borrowing is necessary.

“This is something we’ve got to do,” he said. “Our water and sewage infrastructure are so old, and no major work has been done on them in 20 to 25 years. They are just deteriorating, and we keep getting new mandates from the Department of Health and DEQ, and we just have to do it.”

Asked what backup plans officials have if the applications are denied, Reeves said, “We don’t have a Plan B. We don’t have the money to do it.”

About 20 residents attended the meeting but were not allowed to comment or ask questions, said Ann Katzenmier, who added that she and others oppose additional borrowing and want the aldermen to make spending cuts instead.

Katzenmier said those at the meeting were told the newest loans will translate into higher water bills for Port Gibson residents.

“If they can’t say they can afford to repay them — which they can’t — they will have to raise bills,” she said. “We asked and they finally admitted it.”

Immediately following the called meeting, the board held a public hearing on the proposed budget for fiscal 2011-2012, which will begin Oct. 1.

“It went well,” Katzenmier said of the hearing. “A lot of different people asked questions, and it was really a pleasure to be allowed to ask to get answers.”

The general fund budget of $1,613,454 includes $642,000 for general government, slightly more than $535,000 for public safety and $421,000 for public works, balanced by anticipated receipts that include $1.025 million in state shared revenues, nearly $286,000 in property taxes and $250,000 in “nonrevenue receipts/transfers.”

Combined payroll for the three departments totals more than $1 million, funded by a city of fewer than 2,000 people.

The city’s enterprise fund anticipates almost $780,000 in receipts for water and sewer services against $545,000 in water department salaries, supplies and capital outlays, and a “debt repayment” item totalling $107,000.

Reeves said the debt item represents the repayment of the Arnold administration loan, but could not account for the difference between $107,000 — about $9,000 monthly — and what he said was “$14,000 and some change — close to $15,000” monthly payment, which would total close to $180,000.

Calls to the city’s chief financial officer, Elvin Parker, were not returned.

The website of the Office of the Mississippi State Auditor shows that audits of the financial records of the City of Port Gibson were last filed for the 2008 fiscal year by the Myle CPA Firm of Tupelo on May 28, 2010.

Lisa Shoemaker, spokesman for state auditor Stacey Pickering, said the office will be evaluating all cities and working to get their delinquent audits contracted.