Dironna Moore Belton is counting on a flood of money pouring into Petersburg’s treasury in coming days from residents paying their first quarter property tax bills.

If the $4 million or so the interim city manager is anticipating comes in, Ms. Belton would have more than enough to pay the next principal and interest payments due on Petersburg city bonds.

And that payment, estimated at $1.53 million in city financial documents, would prevent state Secretary of Finance Richard D. “Ric” Brown from seizing state money allocated to Petersburg for other purposes and using it to prevent default on those bonds.

That’s one of the challenges that Ms. Belton is coping with in seeking to keep the Petersburg government afloat amid an ongoing financial crisis for the city of 33,000 people.

Despite budget cuts and tax increases the Petersburg City Council approved, the city remains short of cash to pay its workers and bills. It also remains unable to gain a short-term loan from lenders, who remain skeptical the debt would be repaid.

Trying to keep a handle on the problem, Ms. Belton is receiving daily reports on the city’s cash situation and the bills that are due. She also has centralized approval of all payments in her office, ending the practice in place when she arrived last March of having at least 30 people able to spend city money.

But that has not stopped the challenges from coming.

The latest challenge hit Wednesday, when the regional body that treats Petersburg’s sewage sued the city, seeking $1.2 million that has gone unpaid since May apparently because Ms. Belton diverted fees residents paid for the service to cover more urgent bills.

In its filing, the South Central Wastewater Authority, which also treats sewage for four neighboring localities, is asking the Petersburg Circuit Court to order the city to turn over those fees so it can recoup what it has spent and continue to provide service to residents.

South Central also is going a step further and asking the court to appoint a receiver to ensure that the money the city’s residents pay for the service “is used for its intended purpose.”

While the city intends to defend itself, the action from the authority adds to the line of creditors going to court seeking payment for services they have provided.

Ms. Belton has dealt with some of the challenges. For example, when the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority threatened to suspend trash service, Ms. Belton came up with money to pay for the July and August bills and past due amounts, keeping the service going.

Ms. Belton also has ended the threat that Petersburg might not be able hold elections in November by paying some long overdue bills and ensuring that crucial vendors would print ballots and prepare the city’s voting machines.

Still, Dawn Williams, Petersburg’s longtime voter registrar, said she is worried about being able to pay her small staff overtime and to hire three part-time workers in order to handle the volume of work involved in a presidential election.

“It’s our Super Bowl,” she said.

Just paying for fuel to keep the city’s fleet in operation, including police cars, is proving to be a challenge. And keeping police cars on the street has become a problem. This week, nearly two dozen police cars were parked at the city’s garage awaiting maintenance from service personnel who are not there. Virtually all have quit or been laid off.

Interim Police Chief William Rohde was given permission this week to farm out the work on the aging fleet to local garages.

But there are other challenges that are unresolved. His officers have had to turn in city-supplied cell phones because the bill for service is no longer being paid. And there are reports that the wireless service that allows officers to check license plates and warrants on computers in their patrol cars could be shut off next week because the city cannot pay for the service.

And with a freeze on hiring, Chief Rohde cannot replace more than a dozen officers who have left in recent weeks for other job opportunities.

Separately, Ms. Belton last Friday had to cancel delivery of two new fire trucks the city previously ordered but can no longer afford. The supplier, though, could become another creditor heading to the courthouse because one of the custom trucks was 90 percent complete when the cancellation order was issued.

However, the City Council that depends on Ms. Belton to deal with these challenges continues to look for a permanent city manager, with little sign that she has mustered the support among the seven members to win the job herself.

This week, the council voted to hire a firm to conduct a fresh search after an attempt last week to hire a deputy city manager from Fayetteville, N.C., flopped.

Meanwhile, Ms. Belton continues to work with the funding she has to keep the city going.