Live chickens will remain off limits in Iola.
At least for the time being.
Iola City Council members voted 4-3 against a motion to allow residents to raise live chickens within city limits.
That the chicken referendum even came to a vote was a bit of a surprise.
Mayor Steve French included the topic on Monday’s agenda for a two-pronged discussion.
French said his first intention, after receiving a request from Iolan Robin Griffin-Lohman to have the matter put on the agenda, was to table the discussion until new Council members are seated following the November elections.
He also wanted to know if the Council favored a policy forbidding topics (not necessarily like chickens in Iola) from repeatedly being brought to the Council.
Councilman Nich Lohman, however, didn’t want to wait, calling for a vote on an ordinance identical to one the Council voted down in April 2024 (also by a 4-3 vote.)
He was joined by Council members Ben Middleton and Max Grundy in support, while members Joelle Shallah, Kim Peterson, Joel Wicoff and Josiah D’Albini were opposed.
Shallah said she wasn’t prepared to vote for chickens this soon, and that she wanted to hear first from her constituents. Wicoff echoed those sentiments.
“I’d have to vote based on my prior knowledge, and my prior information received from constituents who emailed and visited with me in April 2024,” Shallah said. In that case, she heard from several residents opposed to having live chickens in Iola, and one who favored it.
City Attorney Bob Johnson, when asked if the Council could legally vote on an ordinance if it wasn’t included in the agenda, said it could. But he also noted an immediate vote denies residents an opportunity to reach out to Council members to share their views.
“You can do it, but you might have 200 people here at the next meeting” to complain, Johnson said. “You generally want the public to have notice.”
Councilman Lohman, Griffin-Lohman’s husband, called for a vote, anyway. He noted French, as mayor, sets each meeting’s agenda, and thus has a say on what topics are discussed, and how often.
An absent Council member loomed large in the final vote, just as it did in April 2024.
Councilman Jon Wells — who voted in favor of the chicken ordinance last year — was unavailable for Monday’s meeting. Had he voted in favor, the 4-4 tie would have given French a say in the matter. French, too, voted for chickens last year, albeit mistakenly, because the previous vote was not a tie.
SEVERAL department heads spoke to Council members about their 2026 budget requests.
