“I think that will be an issue, I think some people would say it does and others that it does not,” Carby said.

Carby said the city asked for a 60- or 90-day continuance because more than just city entities are involved in the Arlington matter, and the city did not have time to mobilize all the entities in time for Wednesday’s oil and gas board meeting. The entities, Carby said, include the National Park Service, the Mississippi Heritage Trust and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Arlington was named the second most endangered historic property in Mississippi by the Mississippi Heritage Trust in 2009.

MDAH is particularly interested in Arlington, Historic Natchez Foundation Executive Director Mimi Miller said.

Biglane has said he has 200 acres of land leased for oil exploration in Natchez in addition to the property at Arlington, including property at Monmouth, Kenilworth, Winchester Road and Routhland.

Biglane has said the proposed exploration at Arlington would help the company determine where to take its next operation.

Miller said MDAH has a preservation easement at Monmouth, giving them an ownership interest in what happens at the property. Miller said the department is concerned that what happens at Arlington could set a precedent for what happens at Monmouth and other historic properties.

Brown said the city has not had time to look into all of the details of the Arlington issue.

“This is a new administration that has inherited a very high profile problem,” Brown said. “We’re not prepared, being in office a month, to assume all of the minutia of errors made in the previous administration.”

The oil and gas board’s attorney Howard Leach said he would be “shocked” if the board did not grant the city the continuance.

The question before the board, Leach has said, is whether a permit from the oil and gas board for the oil operation would allow Biglane to drill without city approval.

“That is something that (the board) is going to have to hear argued by the city’s attorney and the attorneys for RMB,” Leach said.

When the oil and gas board does hear the application, Beth Foster said she hopes the board does not approve Biglane’s application.

“I didn’t understand why all of this happened in the first place when it wasn’t approved,” she said as she stood in the mud behind her house and looked around at what is left of the woods.