Lowndes County is seeking a court judgment to regain control of the old Mississippi Sheriffs’ Boys and Girls Ranch off Motley Road.
In a suit filed Friday in chancery court, the county petitioned for a declaratory judgment nullifying its lease agreement with Mississippi Sheriffs’ Boys and Girls Ranch Inc. — and consequently a sublease Palmer Home for Children is claiming on the property — due to abandonment. Alternatively, the county seeks to enforce the terms of the lease and collect more than a decade’s worth of back rent at “fair market value.”
The county leased the 320-acre property west of Columbus to the Boys and Girls Ranch organization in 1977 to provide programs for underprivileged youth. According to the county’s complaint, it ceased operations some time around 2000 and sub-leased the property to Palmer Home for Children about 2005.
Since then, the county argues, the property has been abandoned and has fallen into disrepair.
Though the county’s lease agreement with the Boys and Girls Ranch set a 99-year term at $1 rent per year, it specifies the lease is terminated if the premises are abandoned or “shall cease to be used by the Mississippi Sheriffs’ Boys and Girls Ranch Inc. in the operation of a boys and girls ranch.” The property, at that point, is to be turned back over to the county, the lease reads.
County board of supervisors attorney Tim Hudson said he believes the language in the lease disallows the Sheriffs’ Ranch group from subletting the property to Palmer Home.
“Most leases have language that says it can’ be sublet without both parties (the lessor and lessee) agreeing,” Hudson told The Dispatch on Monday. “There was really no need for that this time, in my opinion, because it clearly says (the property) can only be operated as a Boys and Girls Ranch.”
Mississippi Sheriffs’ Boys and Girls Ranch Inc., a corporation created through the Mississippi Sheriffs Association, is still registered with the Secretary of State’s Office, but Hudson believes the group is defunct. Its registered agent is a W.L. Benson of Columbus, who is deceased.
“I knew Bill Benson,” Hudson said. “I’m sure he’s been dead five, maybe 10 years.”
Palmer Home operated a foster care facility based in Columbus for decades before moving its headquarters to Hernando in 2019. Hudson said he believes the organization used the sheriffs’ ranch property for programs “for a few years” under its claimed sublease, but it has been vacant and unused since then.
About three years ago, Hudson said, an industry was eyeing the sheriffs’ ranch property for possible development. At that time, Palmer Home attempted to sell the land to the county for $15,000 per acre. In May, Palmer Home sent a check to the county, amounting to a dollar for every year it claimed to have leased the property, but Hudson said he sent the check back because Palmer Home’s lease isn’t valid.
“This property needs to be abandoned or it needs to be used for what it was set up for,” Hudson said. “It’s supposed to be used as a sheriff’s boys and girls ranch to help out underprivileged children, and it isn’t.”
If the court does not nullify the lease and allows the sublease to stand, and it instead orders Palmer Home to pay fair market value for using the property — including back rent to 2005 — that could prove costly. He estimated it could range between $8,000 and $10,000 per year.
“Before the county leased it to the sheriff’s ranch (group), a farmer was using it, and I think his lease was $3,000 or $4,000,” Hudson said. “That was in the ‘70s. We’d have to have it appraised, but I’m sure farmland has gone up in the last 40 years.”
Drake Bassett, CEO for Palmer Home, did not return a call and message seeking comment by press time. However, in May he argued the lease was valid. He said Palmer Home held programs at the site and a professional landscaping company maintains the property. He also referenced future potential uses for the property, including talks with the state to use it to help victims of human trafficking.
Hudson said the signs of dilapidation are clear with both the buildings and grounds. The last time he was out there, he said, there were “four-foot bushes” growing through cracks in the tennis courts.
“It was a very nice place at one time,” Hudson said.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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