More time will be allotted in case anyone offers to move Ceres Plantation House, Wayne Mansfield, executive director of the Warren County Port Commission said Monday.

Three of the commission’s five members met briefly and tabled competing offers to demolish the house at Ceres Research and Industrial Interplex at Flowers. Parts of the house date to 1830, but the house itself has been deemed too unauthentic by state preservationists for consideration as a Mississippi Landmark.

“We’re still looking at ways to preserve the house by moving it to another location — we have a sincere desire to do that,” Mansfield said following the panel’s discussion.

One proposal to renovate the house where it sits and use it as the centerpiece of a 19th century village and a bed and breakfast tourism development was dismissed by commissioners last month because it didn’t fit the guidelines of what the panel asked for, which was either to move the house or tear it down. One estimate is that it would cost $1.8 million to move the house, which has had myriad uses since 1986 when the county acquired the 1,290 acres of farmland for conversion to industrial sites.

A $23,500 offer from Vicksburg-based Buford Construction and another for $24,184 from Madison-based Bulldog Construction would raze the main structure and a smaller pool house.

A separate offer has been made to buy and move the house, Mansfield said, but declined to discuss specifics, except to say it would “meet the elements spelled out” in the commission’s public request for proposals.

After the meeting, Chairman Johnny Moss said the possible existence of asbestos, which would be tested for under one proposal but removed at the commission’s cost, is a factor in delaying a decision, as is the oft-mentioned desire to see the interchange widened and reconfigured to encourage industrial development. No specific plans for the site have been identified by the commission.

Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com