NATCHEZ — Past due bills — both of residents and of the town itself — bubbled up Tuesday night at Ferriday’s Board of Aldermen meeting.

The board declined to hear from Crescent Chemical owner Mark Andel, because he was not on the meeting agenda.

Andel came before the board to discuss payments for a $125,000 court judgment he received against the city for unpaid bills. The company previously provided water treatment chemicals to the city, but was not paid for its services, he said.

Ferriday Mayor Gene Allen said the town simply did not have the money to pay the lawsuit. Town attorney Myisha Davis said the city had previously offered $85,000 as a settlement.

“We’re willing to work something out if they are,” Davis said.

Andel said $85,000 was an unreasonable offer, and he would not accept it.

Davis said Andel’s lawyer should contact her to discuss the matter.

The council voted to require all of the city’s residential customers with past due water bills to be paid by April 21, 2016, or residents’ water service will be cut off.

Mayor Allen said a town ordinance predating his administration requires all water bills be paid by the 21st of the month, or the water will be immediately cut off.

“We haven’t been cutting them off on the twenty-first,” Allen said.

Allen said this was because of repeated requests for lenience of a few days’ time to allow residents to pay and retain uninterrupted service.

“A few days winded up in a few months, and we’re going to have to get it caught up,” Allen said.

Alderman Elijah Banks asked whether some of the residents with past due bills were senior citizens.

Mayor Allen responded he did not know, but the ordinance applies equally regardless of age.

“I get it,” Banks said. “If you’re old, you’re old … you got to stick with the ordinance, that’s for sure.”

Allen said the ordinance also requires all of a resident’s utilities be in the same person’s name before service can be resumed after shutoff. He said this was because some residents were putting utilities in their relatives’ names to avoid paying overdue bills before service could be reconnected.

A resident asked the board how residents could be notified if their residence was using a great deal of water, such as in the case of a leak, in order to prevent steep water bills.

Allen said residents in whose homes a leak was detected would be notified.

“We do give people courtesy calls if they use an excessive amount of water or if they got a leak,” Allen said.

Allen said the city would be able to detect those leaks immediately.

“We can tell the day it started, and if it’s running constantly. We can pinpoint what time the water started leaking,” Allen said.

Allen said the town would circulate an official notice of the April 21 deadline and the ordinance’s other provisions soon.

In other news

– The board has assigned the existing Diamond Disposal contract to Waste Pro. Diamond Disposal recently sold its Ferriday operations to Waste Pro, which will take over garbage pickup on Jan. 1.

Waste Pro Miss-Lou Division Manager Doug Atkins said the company would fulfill the contract exactly as Diamond Disposal had agreed to do.

Alderwoman Gloria Lloyd asked if the contract could be amended to increase the frequency of pickups.

Atkins said the company would draft a new proposal for the board to consider.