A Vicksburg home was granted a reprieve from demolition Monday after neighbors said they’d fix it up.

The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted to give the South Washington Area Neighborhood Association 30 days to make improvements at the home of Ernest McBride. The association had asked that the shotgun house overlooking the Mississippi River at 3001 Pittman Ave. not be torn down.

McBride had been telling city officials he was trying to make repairs, but the demolition order came due to a lack of progress.

“It is our opinion that the house can be saved,” said Mike Davis, representing the neighborhood association. “Mr. McBride is determined to do this on his own. He doesn’t have the resources. He doesn’t have the knowledge and he just doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

McBride is a freelance writer and frequent critic of local public officials for many years. His home was condemned last May after inspectors said it had no utilities, including water or sewer, since 1982.

Last week, McBride asked that he be allowed to finish making improvements and complained that Mayor Laurence Leyens and North Ward Alderman Gertrude Young might gain personal financial benefit from the home’s demolition. Later, police were called to City Hall Annex after an anonymous caller to the Vicksburg Police Department complained that someone was harassing the mayor.

Davis said that neighbors are collecting materials and that volunteers will begin working on the house. Problems with the structure include holes in the roof, termites, rotten wood on the front porch and damage to the floor.

“I’ll give you 30 days on one condition,” Leyens said. “If I don’t see a substantial amount of work, and I don’t mean a piece of plywood and four bricks on the roof, then on the 31st day, we’re taking it down.”

In other matters, the city board:

Recognized senior citizen of the month Grover Sanders.

Approved a variance from Vicksburg Ford Lincoln Mercury to allow the North Frontage Road business to put up new signs larger than specifically allowed in a city ordinance.

Authorized the mayor to make offers to buy seven downtown properties under the city’s urban revitalization effort.

Approved final payment for Mission 66 resurfacing.

Referred a request for free use of the City Auditorium by the Miss Vicksburg Pageant to Compass Management Inc., the contract management firm for the building.

Approved new road names for a new subdivision off Indiana Avenue. The new streets in the Savannah Hills subdivision will be St. Charles Place and Lafayette Drive.

Accepted a grant that will pay overtime for police officers as part of a program to help encourage people to wear seat belts.

Accepted a grant from the Department of Environmental Quality that will pay half of the salary for the city’s code enforcement officer.

Approved the claims docket.

The city board will meet again at 10 a.m. Feb. 18 at City Hall Annex.