RACINE - The City Council will consider Tuesday night whether to return two Civil War cannons to Monument Square.

The cannons - two 4.2-inch, 30-pound, Navy Parrott rifle artillery - were removed from the square two years ago as part of a renovation and their return was not part of the redesign. Instead, the square was left open to accommodate events.

The cannons were somewhat forgotten - stored on old tires behind a Department of Public Works salt shed - until the city of Kenosha asked to borrow them for a Civil War museum. The suggestion to let the cannons leave Racine met with outcry and an effort emerged to find a home for them, including putting them back on Monument Square.

In August, a narrow majority of the Board of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services voted to recommend returning them to the square. The Landmark Preservation Commission, however, voted against their return because they did not fit with the new, more open-square design.

The council meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Room 205 of City Hall, 730 Washington Ave.

Alderman Jim Kaplan, who sits on the Parks Board, has argued strongly for their return to the square, likening the Civil War memorial and cannons as a table centerpiece and candles.

Other locations for the cannons have been suggested, including Kids Cove playground at North Beach; Mound Cemetery; a future Downtown veterans museum; Memorial Hall; by the Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln statue near Gateway Technical College; and Roosevelt Park, the location of a Civil War artillery training ground.

The cannons, which are listed on the National Register of Surviving Civil War Artillery, were installed on Monument Square sometime between the 1884 installation of the Civil War memorial and 1891, when a photograph shows them there.