Commissioners assign fence responsibilities in Snow–JSM Trust boundary dispute

After a closed attorney–client session, the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners returned to open session and adopted a fence-viewing determination in the dispute between landowners Levi and Robynn Snow and the JSM Trust. Commissioner Cory Moates moved the board find that the barbed-wire fence observed on or about April 1 should be deemed the partition fence between the two parcels; the motion passed unanimously.

The board’s written assignment specifies that Parcel A owners (Levi and Robynn Snow) are responsible for repair of the barbed-wire fence on the southern shared property line and that both owners share responsibility 50/50 for upkeep and repair of the fence on the eastern shared property line, with final maintenance on both lines to be shared 50/50 once both segments are constructed. The board recorded that the parcels share approximately 773.36 feet of common boundary and directed that the assignment be recorded by the Register of Deeds pursuant to K.S.A. 29-304; the fence construction specifications are referenced to K.S.A. 29-105(a).

The decision is a formal, statutory fence-viewing assignment rather than a negotiated settlement between the private parties; it sets legal responsibility for construction, maintenance and cost sharing and includes direction to record the assignment with county records.