By Mike Berry

For The Kewanee Voice

A large two-story house on the west side of Kewanee will be converted into an apartment house, after the City Council approved a special use permit for the project.

At Monday’s meeting, the council approved the permit for John and Richard Murray to convert the house at 113 S. Grove St. into six one-bedroom apartments.

The house is owned by Joey and Autumn Janey of Neponset. John Murray told the Planning Commission last month that he plans to purchase the house once the remodeling is finished.

The 4,000-square-foot house is in an area zoned R-4 for multi-family dwellings, and has been a duplex in the past.

No objectors to the special use permit appeared at the Planning Commission meeting or at Monday’s council meeting.

Murray said he owns other properties in the neighborhood of the Grove Street house, and he’s had no complaints from their neighbors.

The Janeys also own a parking lot at the end of West First Street, across the street from 113 S. Grove St. The Murrays plan to purchase the lot to provide off-street parking for their tenants.

Also Monday, Pat Anderson, owner of Bill’s Auto Body on East College Street, told the council he hopes to put an addition on the front of his building.

Community development officer Keith Edwards said the right-of-way on College Street is so wide that it comes up to the front of the existing building. But he added that there a number of places in Kewanee where businesses have built over the public right-of-way.

Anderson said the addition would come out 10 feet from the front of his building, and would be 23 feet from the curb.

In other action:

— The council approved an agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation for IDOT to pay the city $725,000 for maintenance of state highways within Kewanee.

— A 2023 Dodge Charger was purchased from Crowe Auto Group for the police department’s K9 officer. Crowe’s bid was the lower of two the city received.

— Moore Tires was given permission for its employees to park on the former go-kart track north of their West Second Street property. The city acquired that land from Gustafson Ford in exchange for the city parking lot at First and Chestnut streets.