A chancery judge’s order issued Monday effectively divides property at the Mississippi Sheriff’s Boys and Girls Ranch between Lowndes County and Palmer Home for Children.
The order settles a legal dispute between the two parties that arose last year when the county claimed the foster care nonprofit’s lease on the property was void.
The site will be split into two pieces, according to Chancery Judge Rodney Faver’s order, the extent of which will be determined after a legal description is developed. Ownership of the larger of those two pieces will revert to Lowndes County, although the Palmer Home will have access for 30 days “… for the purpose of removing any personal property or equipment.”
That piece of property will be “full released from the terms of the 1977 lease,” Faver ordered.
Faver also directed the two sides to work out a new lease agreement for the remainder of the site, but he included some direction. The Palmer Home will pay $1 per acre per year for whatever amount of land is settled on, and, within 12 months of the new lease being approved, must “begin operations benefitting children” on the site.
The Palmer Home is free to partner with other organizations to provide those services, but Faver ordered the site “… be utilized as a residential setting for underprivileged, abused or neglected children or children in similar situations.”
Once those operations get started, if Palmer Home stops actively using the site for 60 days then it will revert back to the county, Faver ordered.
The primary term of the lease will be for 25 years, Faver ordered. If Palmer Home fails to follow the conditions of the lease, it “… shall be absolutely null and void.”
The Lowndes County Board of Supervisors sued Palmer Home, a residential facility for foster children, over the 99-year lease to the property, which covers about 320 acres off of Motley Road. Starting in 1977, the Mississippi Boys and Girls Ranch paid $1 per year to operate there.
The Palmer Home took it over in 2005 but has not hosted programming for children there since 2019 — the same year the organization relocated its main operations from a campus in Columbus to Hernando.
The county contended Palmer Home lost the lease when the site stopped being used for children, which was one of the chief requirements under the original agreement. It also argued that the property fell into disrepair on the Palmer Home’s watch.
Under the new order, Palmer Home will also be required “… to place the property in the same or better condition in which Palmer Home received it” and to keep the site in “good and tenantable condition.”
The board of supervisors and the Palmer Home board of directors were given 21 days to approve the judge’s temporary order.
Drake Bassett, president and CEO for Palmer Home, was guarded, but optimistic, in his comments to The Dispatch on Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re in the middle of working towards a resolution that will be mutually beneficial for the county, as well as Palmer Home,” he said. “The finalized details haven’t been resolved yet, but there is a greater level of collaboration.”
Bassett said he thought the issue would be resolved “in the next couple of weeks.”
He would not comment on what Palmer Home planned to do with the site.
“We’ve had to set aside some things, and we’ll have to restart those plans and conversations,” he said.
He also wouldn’t comment on the size of the land Palmer Home will eventually lease.
“I’m going to leave it there for now until I have some confirmation from the county and from the judge,” he said. “Right now we don’t really know.”
Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston declined to comment as he is both on the board of supervisors and the board of the Palmer Home.
“I’ve been out of the loop,” he said. “Whan that issue comes up in either place I have to recuse myself and physically leave the room.”
Hairston referred The Dispatch to County Attorney Tim Hudson, who did not return a call by press time.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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