The company that supplied the city's Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services Department with new breathing equipment has repossessed the equipment and is holding it until the city can make good on its payments

PETERSBURG — The city's cash flow woes hit home this week as the company that supplied the city's Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services Department with new breathing equipment has repossessed the equipment and is holding it until the city can make good on its payments.

Richmond-based Fire Protection Equipment Co. on Wednesday repossessed the self-contained breathing apparatus it sold to the city earlier this year because "the invoices had yet to be reconciled," said Deputy Fire Chief Brian Sturdivant. "They made a business decision to repossess until the invoices are reconciled," he said.

The nearly $400,000 contract with Fire Protection Equipment, which was to have been paid for through a federal grant, also included training, Sturdivant said.

The apparatus, which enables firefighters "to navigate through smoky environments," he said, "had yet to go live with actually placing them in service. We were working through the training component."

A rumor that circulated on Thursday that some fire trucks also had been repossessed was "not true from what I understand," Sturdivant said.

The repossession followed news that the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority is threatening to suspend trash and recycling collections in Petersburg unless the city makes its first full monthly payment since May and offers a plan to repay the more than $600,000 it owes to the authority by Friday, Aug. 19.

Both revelations, and other reports of city departments unable to obtain operating supplies or losing employees because of pay cuts, seemed to confirm a prediction made by Virginia Secretary of Finance Richard D. Brown during a presentation to City Council on Aug. 3. Brown reported the findings of a team of state auditors and financial consultants who are helping Petersburg sort out its financial problems.

The team had found that as of June 30, the city had an estimated total of about $18.8 million in unpaid bills — about $4.1 million in funds owed by various city departments to each other, and about $14.7 million owed to outside entities.

Between those bills and others that are coming due now, the auditors reported, “The city will have extreme difficulty paying essential bills (including payroll) in the latter part of 2016, perhaps as early as mid-August.”

The problem — a lack of cash flowing in and an excess of cash flowing out — “is not going away,” Brown said. “It is embedded in the figures and it calls for some action.”

City Council is scheduled to receive detailed recommendations from the state team for how to remedy the city's cash flow problems at a special meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 23.

• Michael Buettner may be reached at 722-5155 or mbuettner@progress-index.com.