KANOPOLIS — The fate of a proposed ordinance regulating the keeping of chickens in Kanopolis will not be on the Nov. 5 general election ballot as was originally intended by the Kanopolis City Council.

“I’m certainly disappointed,” said Mayor Anthony Hopkins during a recent interview with the Independent-Reporter.

Hopkins said some things have happened that he and the council were not aware of which are not going to allow the proposed ordinance to be on the ballot.

“We thought we did our due diligence on it by talking to the county clerk and with our city attorney, Patrick Hoffman,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s not going to be on the ballot because of a provision that was missed.”

Hopkins said he and the council are trying to figure out the best way to go about getting the proposed ordinance in front of Kanopolis citizens.

“We really wanted it on the ballot because we thought that was the most democratic way to resolve a very heated issue,” he added.

One way would be to include a questionnaire in the city water bills.

“It would be a very close vote if the council voted on it,” Hopkins said.“There’s a lot of pros and cons that have been presented to us by a lot of people. We really feel like so everyone has the chance to give their input, we would like to do some kind of a ballot.”

Hopkins said that discussion will be on the agenda at the Nov. 12 council meeting.

“We’ll try to decide what route we’re going to go,” he said. “If I had to guess, I would say something will be put in the water bills maybe.”

The issue of regulating the keeping of chickens in Kanopolis began when a group of people requested the council take another look at an old ordinance that was on the books, but not enforced.

The proposed ordinance now under consideration was drawn up with input from those who requested the council take another look at it. Also considered were ordinances that several communities in the area — Salina, Brookville and Lindsborg — had recently approved.

Hopkins described the proposed ordinance as “pretty reasonable.”

One highlight of the proposed ordinance is the requirement that neighbors of a resident wanting to keep chickens would have to approve it first.

“If you don’t want chickens, then you don’t have to approve it,” Hopkins said.“That leads to the opportunity for hurt feelings and hard feelings between neighbors, which we obviously don’t want.”

Hopkins said although he is unsure of the facts, he had heard the prior mayor, Russell “Rusty” Bunch and the council had decided at that time to start enforcing the ordinance on keeping chickens which had been on the books for 75 years.

“That ordinance basically read that chickens were not allowed in town unless they were 750 feet away from the closest neighbor,” Hopkins said.“To my knowledge, I think there was only one person who had chickens in the city limits that met that requirement. The others were not in compliance with that ordinance, so they were ultimately forced to remove their chickens.”

Hopkins said while he was campaigning for mayor, the chicken question was something he was asked a lot.

“Surprisingly, it kind of went quiet for quite a while, then the group approached us about reconsidering it,” he said.

Hopkins said he knew people would be passionate on both sides of the chicken question.

“But I didn’t realize there would be as many people on both sides,” he added.“I figured most people would be like me — fine either way. I personally have a lot of mixed feelings about it, but if that’s what the people want, that’s fine, and if it’s not, that’s fine too.”

Hopkins said in all the things he and the council have dealt with in the past two years, he would say the chicken question has been the most heated.

“One of the things I like about Kanopolis the best is we’re not like every other town,” he said.“That’s why some people want to live in Kanopolis — because we can have those things.”