The City Council is considering ending a decades-long practice of publishing legal notices in the Star Courier.

At its meeting Monday, the council discussed a proposal by city staff to switch the advertising from the Star Courier to the Quad City Times of Davenport, Iowa.

A resolution prepared by the staff, but not voted on by the council Monday, notes that the city “is required by law to designate an official newspaper for the publication of legal notices, ordinances, resolutions, and other official matters.”

The Star Courier has been the city’s official newspaper for many years. But the resolution says the paper “is no longer published in Kewanee and the lack of local news coverage has led many local residents to turn to alternative sources for information that is relevant to local matters.”

The Star Courier, now owned by national publishing giant Gannett, is produced and printed at the Journal Star plant in Peoria. It no longer has a presence in Kewanee, with no employees or physical property here, and no local home delivery. It is available only on newsstands and by mail.

“The Star Courier has gotten very costly,” Mayor Gary Moore said, and “has not always been very prompt in getting our notices in the paper.”

The Quad City Times is “readily available in Kewanee,” City Manager Gary Bradley said. He said the Times charges more for its advertising than the Star Courier does, but he feels ads in the Davenport paper would reach more people.

Bradley said city officials would like to be able to run legal notices online instead of in print, but the state “is not yet ready” to allow that.

Officials of The Kewanee Voice have reached out to state legislators in an effort to have the law amended to allow online publication of legal notices.