The owners of the 140-year-old downtown building that partially collapsed in January are asking for a court order to prevent the city from spending money to salvage the property.

No date has been set for a hearing, to be held in front of Judge Jane Weathersby at the Sunflower County Courthouse in Indianola, according to a summons filed along with the complaint Friday in Warren County Chancery Court.

In the complaint, owners Preston and Mary Reuther also ask for permits to demolish still-standing structures at 707 and 709 Clay St. and clear the remnants of 711 and 713 Clay, which collapsed on Jan. 25 during cleaning. It reveals as well that the Reuthers entered into an agreement with Bill Greenwood of Bentonia-based Antique Wood and Brick Co. of Mississippi to demolish the buildings for $10 and rights to salvage the brick, wood and other structures.

&#8220Clearly, despite the city’s assertions, demolition is the least expensive alternative for the Plaintiffs,” the complaint said.

The Reuthers initially petitioned the city in an attempt to have the entire complex demolished in February because rebuilding would be cost-prohibitive. At that meeting, they estimated cost of demolition would be $100,000. A later estimate by the city said it could be $300,000, according to the complaint, about $70,000 more than the Reuthers paid for the building last October.

&#8220We have a property that has no value because nobody’s interested in buying it,” Mary Reuther said Monday. &#8220All we’re asking is that we be allowed to proceed with demolition.”

Mayor Laurence Leyens, however, reiterated that he believed the former Thomas Furniture buildings have historical value and should be salvaged if possible to prevent &#8220a big hole” in the middle of the downtown business district.

&#8220I’m convinced the building can be saved in an economical way,” Leyens said, adding he had spoken to an interested buyer. &#8220There’s no reason to allow it to be destroyed just because it’s convenient to the Reuthers.”

City Attorney Nancy Thomas said the city could legally go ahead with the process of contracting out the stabilization of the property – which has not been significantly touched since days after the fall and may be in danger of further collapse – but will wait.

&#8220We’re not going to do something that would be harmful to the city if the court ruled otherwise,” she said.

The request for injunction was filed on the final day of a 30-day deadline set by the city for the Reuthers’ contractor, Bill Greenwood of Bentonia-based Antique Wood and Brick of Mississippi, to submit plans of work for stabilization. That stay had been granted last month, when Greenwood was hired by the Reuthers after showing up at their front door to inquire about the project.

The 30 days, however, ended with the two sides at an impasse, no plans submitted, the Reuthers claiming no buyers have come forward because the property has no value and should be demolished, the city accusing the owners of withholding an asking price to keep interested buyers away and each accusing the other of unnecessarily holding up the reopening of the 700 block of Clay between Washington and Walnut streets. The Walnut Street entrance to the block has reopened enough to allow access to the Adolph Rose Antiques building, the B’Nai B’Rith Club and the Trustmark Bank drive-through window. The Washington Street entrance remains blocked by a chain link fence, and the city’s three tourism arms – the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, Vicksburg Main Street and the Vicksburg Warren Community Alliance – are each in new locations from their now-vacant spot at Washington and Clay.

&#8220If the city would let us go ahead, we could have had Clay Street opened,” Mary Reuther said.

&#8220They’ve done nothing but cost lots of people lots of money downtown,” Leyens countered. &#8220If the Reuthers want to get out, they need to put a price on the property.”

The couple has said they plan to leave Vicksburg, five years after moving from New Orleans and buying more than a dozen properties, mostly for rentals. Their Clay Street business, Master Wire Sculpture, was closed and its windows boarded up after multiple cases of vandalism following the closure, Mary Reuther said.

&#8220We’re not running out of town,” Preston Reuther said last month. &#8220We’re going to take care of our responsibility here. That building’s going to be addressed.”

Friday, when the petition for an injunction was filed, was the second city-set deadline that has elapsed on the Reuthers. The Board of Mayor and Aldermen established a March 11 deadline for work to begin based on stabilization plans drawn up by the Reuthers’ contractor, Freddie Parson.

Parson, however, was subsequently fired for failing to begin work, which he said he was unable to do because he had received only mandatory insurance the day before his termination.

Two other local contractors Reuther hired the first week of March said they were also unable to get the necessary insurance to begin work or submit an engineer’s plan before the expiration of the city’s deadline.

In April, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved $17,500 to hire Patrick Sparks of Texas to draw a blueprint for stabilizing the property, and plans to approve a bid for work based on Sparks’ plan after a ruling on the injunction.