Would you be willing to spend an extra half-cent in sales tax if the money would go to fix Kewanee streets?

The City Council plans to go to the ballot box to see how Kewaneeans answer that question.

At Monday’s City Council meeting, City Manager Gary Bradley said he has directed city staff to prepare an ordinance for council consideration that would place the question on the ballot in an upcoming election.

The city already collects a half-cent sales tax to pay for infrastructure improvements, and both local school districts have half-cent taxes that fund building projects.

Bradley was asked by Councilman Chris Colomer about the possibility of the additional sales tax, and Bradley said the process to seek voter approval is in the works.

Colomer began the discussion by asking why the annual street maintenance program is taking place so late in the year.

Normally the street work is done in late summer. But while preliminary work on the streets has begun, the final paving won’t take place for a few more days.

Bradley said, “I really would like to see (the street work) done earlier.”

Next year, Bradley said, the summer street job will be bid out “in a different manner that would get us some different results.”

The city manager said some Kewaneeans had posted on Facebook that all of Kewanee’ streets should receive new hot-mix asphalt surfaces. The cost of such a job, he said, would be “astronomical.”

Also Monday, the council approved two recommendations from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Approved were a petition from Jason Phelps for a variance of six feet from the city’s limit on the height of an accessory structure at 725 Dewey Ave., and a request from Rich Turley for a change to the setback requirement for a two-car garage he wants to build at a home at 480 Midland Drive.

No objectors to either petition appeared at the zoning board meeting, and the board approved both unanimously. So did the council.