The group striving to preserve the Asarco smokestacks still has time before the Dec. 4 deadline to turn them into memorials. 

The non-profit group, Save the Stacks, wants the city to purchase just the stacks. However, the trustee of the property said the entire site, and not just the stacks, needs to be sold. 

Save the Stacks recently wrote a resolution for the city to take over the iconic structures. The resolution is on Tuesday's agenda. 

Founder of Save the Stacks, Richard Ardivino, said that he feels the trustee is backing out of a deal.

The trustee, who is in charge of the site, allowed for the group to have an extension on the smokestacks demolition while they worked on meeting certain conditions to preserve them. Among those conditions was proving that the smoke stacks were safe from tumbling down during a possible earthquake. The trustee of the Asarco site, Roberto Pugo, said an engineer needs to deem them safe so the trust faces no liability. 

Ardivino said that the group has raised money to have structural engineers examine the smoke stacks and ensure they are safe.