BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – The East Baton Rouge Parish Registrar’s Office has again pushed back the anticipated date to finish verifying signatures on a petition to create the city of St. George to at least next week.

St. George backers submitted a petition to call an election to create their own city in the southern part of the parish in the fall. The Registrar’s Office started verifying the 1,179-page document in December. Originally, the Registrar’s Office planned to finish verifying the petition’s estimated 18,000 names in late February.

Earlier this week, the Registrar’s Office estimated that it was on track to finish by Wednesday or Thursday.

Administrative Assistant Aimee Pourciau tells The Advocate (http://bit.ly/1EGq3gJ ) the most recent delay is because of tight deadlines the Registrar’s Office is required to meet for elections.