Something stinks at Hogansville City Hall and here’s the straight scoop.

Hogansville City Council had its first reading Monday on an ordinance regulating the collection of horse-droppings during citywide parades. The leavings became an issue after the city’s Christmas parade on Dec. 1, causing council to have to step carefully into the issue. The ordinance is creatively called the “Road Apple Retrieval Ordinance.”

“Any person or group riding or otherwise directly in control of any horse, mule or donkey in a parade shall provide, at each person’s own expense, a follower who shall follow along behind such animal or group of animals and collect any excrement dropped by such animal before the next person or vehicle crosses over the point where such waste was dropped,” the ordinance reads.

Although the ordinance may be a first – No. 1 – for this area, it is crafted after other ordinances in other cities that already have dealt with the droppings, City Attorney Jeff Todd said.

City Manager James Woods said the ordinance was let out for council consideration after a complaint from Hogansville Elementary School about unsanitary conditions. The parade begins and ends at the school. This year, the horses did go last in the lineup.

It will take a second reading – No. 2 – to pass the ordinance at council’s first meeting in January.

Council on Monday also passed a budget amendment moving $68,900 from a reserve fund to the general and utility funds to cover “debts unanticipated,” said City Manager James Woods.

Woods said the money’s main purpose is to pay for the replacement of three sprayfield pumps at the city’s sewage sprayfield.