NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
SOUTH HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Cheney Lake Watershed hosted "A Look at Fence Laws in Kansas" Thursday at the South Hutchinson Community Center.
Roger McEowen, the Professor of Agricultural Law and Taxation at Washburn University School of Law, talked about what a legal fence is in Kansas and who is responsible to pay for it.
"There tends to be some confusion with respect to that," McEowen said. "The Kansas statutes are not necessarily worded in a way that's easy to understand. That has led to some controversy over the years. I focused on some of those."
McEowen said the event was well attended, with over 60 in attendance at an event where they were hoping to get 30 people. Private landowners have their own fence disputes, but it really becomes thorny when government is involved.
"You get into the responsibility of the Department of Transportation for highway fences, what about railroad fences, the rails to trails issue, on and on it goes. You open a can of worms up every time you talk about fence laws. An hour presentation turns into three pretty quickly."
There are, ironically, firmly set boundaries for fence viewers who deal with landowner disputes at the county level.
"They have limited jurisdiction," McEowen said. "Their limited jurisdiction is only involving fence maintenance and building issues. They have no jurisdiction to set a boundary line or tell you where a fence should be located. It's just purely on who is responsible for building and or maintaining an existing fence."
The county commission was asked in February to convene a fence viewing board for a dispute between a landowner, Gary Black, and Ducks Unlimited. County Counselor Patrick Hoffman was still working with the parties to try to resolve the dispute prior to an official viewing, as of the meeting when the board was named back on February 14.
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