Attorney General Opinion No.

R. Douglas Sebelius Norton County Attorney P.O. Box 10 Norton, Kansas 67654

Dear Mr. Sebelius:

As Norton County Attorney, you ask a number of questions that relate to Norton County's authority to regulate the subsurface use of county section line roads.

In 1874 the Kansas Legislature declared all section lines in Norton County to be public highways.1 The statute provided upon application of "ten freeholders or householders" who asserted that "public convenience require[d] the opening of such road," that the county commissioners notify the road overseer. The overseer would then open the road "at…