After months of contention and legal wrangling, the City of Vicksburg is prepared to hire a contractor to stabilize the partially collapsed downtown building that has forced nearby residents, businesses and city agencies out of their homes, officials said Friday.

Contractors will submit bids over the next 30 days to begin stabilizing the old Thomas Furniture building at 707-711 Clay St. based on an engineering report submitted by private engineer Patrick Sparks last month.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen unanimously approved authorizing City Clerk Walter Osborne to advertise for a contractor at its regular meeting.

Sparks’ report called for a &#8220temporary stabilization” to secure and clean the structure, part of which remains standing, and allow the remainder of the 700 block of Clay Street to reopen, said city inspections head Victor Gray-Lewis after reviewing the Texas-based engineer’s proposal last month. The east end of the block reopened earlier this month to give vehicles access to the B’nai B’rith Club, Adolph Rose Antiques, the bottom level of the Trustmark Bank parking garage and the bank’s drive-through window. The Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, Vicksburg Main Street and the Vicksburg-Warren Community Alliance – have remained out of the building at Clay and Washington.

The project may also include a privacy fence to block the street from the construction, Leyens said.

&#8220We felt the city’s obligation is to make a safe route through Clay Street and get Main Street and the VCVB back into their building,” he said, adding,&#8220We will be charging this expense back to the owner.”

Though given &#8220a wide open door” by the mayor to take action on the property, the building’s owner, Preston Reuther, has said recently the site was &#8220the city’s baby,” and that he and his wife, Mary, were contemplating leaving Vicksburg.

In February, the Reuthers estimated based on a report by Vicksburg architect Skippy Tuminello that renovating and bringing still-standing sections at 707 and 709 Clay up to modern codes could cost $2.75 million, which they said was &#8220cost-prohibitive.” They asked that the complex be demolished instead, a request rejected by the city’s architectural review board and, later, Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

&#8220If they think those buildings are worth all this trouble, then I wish them luck,” Reuther said last month.

The city took over the project in March, when the deadline it had set for the Reuthers to submit plans for the property lapsed without any contact between the two sides. The Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved $17,500 at its April 3 meeting to hire Sparks.

The Reuthers had submitted stabilization plans approved by Gray-Lewis and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen in February, but subsequently fired the contractor who drew them up, Freddie Parson, who said he was unable to obtain insurance required before he could start working.

Two other local contractors Reuther hired said they were also unable to get the necessary insurance to begin work before the March 11 deadline expired.

Since then, city officials and Reuther have said communication between them has been virtually nonexistent.

Mayor Laurence Leyens has said Reuther has &#8220a wide open door” to submit plans and begin cleaning the property. Reuther, however, after initially vowing to rebuild, has said he is &#8220disenchanted” with the city’s response to the collapse, accused officials of being anti-small business, auctioned off what remained of the antiques intended for the building and put up for sale five of the 14 properties he and his wife had bought since moving from New Orleans five years ago.

One of those, a vacant lot on China Street behind the collapsed Clay Street complex, was sold this month to Vicksburg Municipal Airport Board secretary Jay Kilroy. A contract for another, a vacant building on south Madison Sreet, is pending with business owner Martin Hogan, whose request for an exception to city ordinances to open a sheet metal fabrication business on the site was approved this week by the city zoning board.