Years after plans to use the former Mississippi Sheriffs Boys and Girls Ranch property for children’s services fell through, Lowndes County supervisors have formally turned over the remaining acreage to Lowndes County Industrial Development Authority.
Golden Triangle Development LINK Chief Operating Officer Meryl Fisackerly, who also serves as the administrator for LCIDA, said the decision allows the authority to incorporate the entire tract into its certificated water and sewer service area to prepare for future development.
“We’re … adding CINCO to our certificated area to be able to serve the water and the sewer to the CINCO Megasite,” Fisackerly told the board during a Tuesday meeting. “In doing that, we’re going ahead and filing for this property and any other property that we don’t (already) have that we intend to develop.”
The board of supervisors previously deeded the bulk of the 320-acre property to LCIDA in May 2024, when the remaining roughly 62 acres were still leased by Palmer Home.
“I think the intention from the beginning was that all of the boys ranch property would at some point all be LCIDA,” Fisackerly said.
Palmer Home began leasing the remaining acreage in 2005, but the nonprofit ended programming at the site after relocating its main operations from Columbus to Hernando in 2019. With the property falling into disrepair, the county in 2021 petitioned the chancery court to void that lease.
After a failed pitch to sublet the property to the Dream Center for a residential rehabilitation program for young adult women, supervisors voted in June 2024 to terminate Palmer Home’s lease agreement.
“So now there’s no longer any liens on that property,” Trip Hairston, District 2 supervisor and board president, told The Dispatch after the meeting Tuesday.
Hairston said at least three structures remaining on the property need to be demolished, though that decision would be up to the LCIDA board.
“There was some vandalism that took place out there,” Hairston said. “There (were) one or two (structures) that were not unusable, and the other (was) deemed unsafe and not usable after the vandalism took place.”
Still, he said the property, which is situated on Motley Road as a buffer between the industrial park and a residential area, provides a prime opportunity for development.
“In my opinion, that’s best suited for industrial property and was something we discussed prior to (the decision),” Hairston said.
More land to develop
Also during Tuesday’s meeting, supervisors unanimously approved a resolution of intent to deed a strip of land off Airport Road to Golden Triangle Regional Airport, if and when the airport board has an opportunity to develop it.
The land runs north and south alongside the entrance of the airport to the end of the property parallel to the runway.
“Lowndes County owned that piece of property to restrict access to go to the airport,” Hairston said. “It was always the intent that the property would be deeded over to the airport if and when they need it for any sort of economic development.”
Hairston pointed to Stark Aerospace and Airbus Helicopters, both located adjacent to the airport, as examples for how the land could be developed.
“Not that we have anybody in the works, but if that opportunity were ever to come open, this allows the airport authority to have some comfort level that the county will indeed deed that property over when they need it,” Hairston said, noting Tuesday’s decision shores up the board’s long-stated intent for the land.
Other business
In other business Monday, the board:
■ approved advertising county resources with Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau to the tune of $25,000 for the upcoming Bassmaster Elite tournament set for March 26-29;
■ set the first public hearing for March 31 to consider a short-term rental ordinance modeled after the city’s that would make short-term rentals in the county subject to the 2% hotel tax; and
■ authorized Emergency Management Agency Director Cindy Lawrence to declare a local emergency during disaster situations under circumstances that prevent the board from doing so.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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