Days before the deadline for change, three of 1,202 once-invalidated names have been cleared and reinstated to a petition calling for a vote on a proposed city bond issue, Deputy City Clerk Edna Hadad told the City Board Friday.

The deadline is 5 p.m. Monday for people whose names were disqualified from the petition to prove their legitimacy and have the names returned to the petition delivered to City Hall on Nov. 3.

For the petition to succeed, an additional 579 petitioners would need to request and receive such a finding.

The list of invalid petition entries was released Nov. 30 by City Clerk Walter Osborne. That list was posted at City Hall and on the city’s Web site, www.vicksburg.org.

Names were disqualified for six reasons, with 1,073 disqualified because the person was not a registered city voter or the address listed on the petition did not match that of the person on the city’s voter roll.

In all three reinstatements, the petitioners presented proof to the City Clerk’s Office that the addresses on the petition were correct, Hadad said.

To force a referendum the petition would need 1,500 valid entries.

The petition had 2,120 names when it was submitted Nov. 3, Osborne said. His office staff canvassed the list to verify the names and addresses.

The list of non-qualifying names was posted Dec. 1, and those people had 10 days to contest.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted Oct. 3 to borrow $16.9 million to fund a $7.8 million citywide repaving project; $5 million to replace the Washington Street rail overpass at Clark Street; and $4.1 million on softball fields, the first phase of a planned recreation complex off Fisher Ferry Road. The city is to be reimbursed over four years by the federal government for the cost of the overpass replacement.

The petition was submitted by officials of the Vicksburg NAACP.

A separate proposal by the city board is to create an urban-renewal area south of downtown from the east side of Washington Street west to the riverbank.

Language on the petition links the bond proposal to the proposed urban-renewal project.

Redevelopment or development of the urban-renewal area is to be accomplished almost entirely by the private sector, with the city spending about $570,000 of the proposed bond proceeds on such projects as repaving and additions or upgrades of landscaping, sidewalks, lighting and drainage in the proposed urban-renewal area.

The urban-renewal project would also be the second in as many terms for the city board. The first was begun about six years, created an urban-renewal area along Washington Street downtown and was accompanied by bond-issue funding for property-acquisition.

Leyens has said that even though no direct link between the two proposals exists, no go-ahead vote on the urban-renewal project will be made before the city board has been able to consider action on the bond issue.

The next city board meeting is set for Dec. 18.