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By Myrna Trauntvein It was decided that the county commission would take not action on a request by a landowner for the county to disclaim a road. “This is a property dispute,” Jared Rowley, county attorney said. “It is a contested roadway.” The courts had access to all the records. Attorneys could research and present the information available and a fair and equitable decision could be made. He suggested that the issue was one that should be determined there. “I suggest that the commission dismiss the request,” he said. The alternative would be to have the road claims investigated by the county. The Christensen/Mangelson Levan Road Dispute is a property conflict that involves adjoining agricultural properties on the south end of Levan along the State Route 28 corridor. It centers around access rights to a local farm or county road that interfaces with or borders the respective ranch lands sitting just east of State Route 28. The dispute is whether the road is a county road that should not be gated and locked or a private farm road that can be. Dennis Christensen and his son, Seth Christensen, an attorney, making the request and Cheryl Phillips, opposing the request, each had time on the agenda to address the issue with the Christensen pair going first. “We went to the recorder’s office and looked at maps and that road was not shown as a county road until 1976,” said D. Christensen. The road in question was needed on the west side of the Mangelson property so that cattle could reach water and that private road was not on maps as a county road until 1976. Two weeks ago the Christensens requested that the county disclaim the road. D. Christensen, property trustee, said that the road travels between the Christensen and Mangelson properties near Levan. The right to use the road was purchased long before 1976 by his grandfather. The road property was purchased by Christensens in 1946. “There is another access to the Mangelson property from the highway,” said S. Christensen. In fact, said D. Christensen, Phillips had mentioned in previous remarks that she had been dropped off by a school bus at that other location to visit her grandfather’s farm. S. Christensen said he was the fourth generation to deal with the issue and memories of the facts had been dying off with the older members of the respective families. The Christensen family would like the issue resolved. On May 18, 2025, Phillips, as trustee of the Mangleson property, attended the county commission meeting with her attorney, Phillip Miller, to request that county commissioners help her gain access to her family property because she was now blocked from doing so. The Christensens had put a lock on the gate and had never given the Mangelson ranch a key. That kept them from accessing their property. Phillips said that she had information to share with commissioners. The road was a county road that extended beyond the end of the properties. Additionally, the Mangelson property could not be accessed from any other way because of a steep drop off. In 1996, when the gate was put across the roadway, she said, her grandfather was serving as a mission president. In 1999, when he returned, he began working on the problem. “I have several letters,” she said. “One was from chief deputy county attorney, AnnMarie Howard.” It stated that the road was a county road and, therefore, could not be locked. Howard served as the Chief Deputy Juab County Attorney from May 1996 to November 2020. David Leavitt served as the Juab County Attorney from 1995 to 2003 and was the author of the next letter. He had researched land records and landowners and accessed a former commission’s 1952 aerial photos. He advised that the gate should be left unlocked. In 1976, the United States Congress had passed the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), which completely shifted how rural and public roads across federal lands were established and legally recorded. Then President Bill Clinton gave states the right to govern their own roads. Through all the many letters advising Christensens to remove the lock from the gate, it had remained, she said. In 2003, the Christensens were told that a gate could be in place but that it could not be locked. “In a letter dated May 17, 2018, the commissioners said that the gate should not be locked,” said Phillips. When she met with commissioners this past spring, she had made the request that the gate be left unlocked to allow access. Perry Davis, then county attorney, had said that a county road could not be locked. Rowley asked what 10 years the road had been open to public access. Phillips said that the letter, written by the county on October 2, 2001, said that the road had been a graveled road in 1946 and remained so until the gate was added in 1996. The county had maintained the road until the gate was put in place. D. Christensen said that the Mangelsons used the road on the east side. He said the gate was placed because they used the land for grazing and the cattle needed to be kept inside the fence. “How could you turn a grader down that road?” asked S. Christensen. “The Mangelsons would have to prove continuous use for 10 years. Mangelsons want the county to fight their fight.” The road is on a county road map as a county road, said Rowley. Clinton Painter, commission chairman, said his dad was trustee for a nearby farm. He remembered driving to that farm with his grandfather. He was now curious about the road. He needed more historic information. “I don’t think that ownership of the road is clear enough for me to make a decision,” said Marvin Kenison, commissioner. Marty Palmer, commissioner, made the motion to dismiss the request of Christensens without action. Kenison made the second and all voted in favor of dismissing the request.
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