Controversy surrounds The Ranch daycare center in Madison when it closed this week after flunking Health Department and Madison fire inspections. However, a group of parents whose children attend the Ranch are protesting as they try to drum up support and help the beleaguered daycare center reopen.
The city of Madison issued the following statement this afternoon:
We are aware that The Ranch failed a State Health Department Inspection. The State requires daycares to have a letter confirming compliance with the Fire Code; however, Fire Code Issues were only one part of the failed inspection. The City notified The Ranch in February that it would need to bring the property to current code compliance, which includes life safety issues such as a fire alarm and sprinklers in the facility. We also indicated that we would work with them on time. Presently, none of those issues have been addressed beyond quotes which were only provided to the City on Monday 10/27. To be clear, the City's Codes do require fire safety requirements, but the City did not close the facility.
We are unsure as to when The Health Department notified The Ranch that it would not be able to operate, but The Ranch notified the City on Friday. We do think it is unfortunate that The Ranch failed to notify parents until Monday.
The Health Department published a copy of the report on its website. The Ranch passed inspection in March 2025 and October 2024 but flunked the September 2025 inspection.
The inspection report lists the violations.
The inspection is posted below.
Kingfish note: Parents are raising hell on social media, saying "community" over code. Well, what are they going to say if the building catches fire while their kids are in it? Some of these same parents probably cheered Mike Chaney on when he closed Thalia Mara Hall and Eudora Welty Library after they flunked fire inspections. There is a reason for fire codes and one has to look no further than Natchez to understand why. Instead of raising hell with the city, maybe they should chip in and help the Ranch meet the fire codes and get some insurance as well.
33 comments:
Who the hell signed for State Dept. Of Health?
So they pass in March but fail 6 months later? Let’s see the inspection from March. Not making much sense.
F gov regs, my kids should have the freedom to burn up in a house fire
There's reasonable fire precautions and then there's government regulations and burdensome requirements. Often those two things are not the same. Many, many, many small businesses are shuttered every year like this. They are operating on tight margins until the government comes in and tells them to spend mega bucks or close. They close.
Why would parents put the dangerous failures of the facility over the welfare of their children? They must be the kind of parents who leave their children in hot cars.
One of those rules (not violated) is blatantly unconstitutional.
Sure, they should add some fire alarms if they don’t have them, fix the leak and straighten out their paperwork. None of that seems to be at the level of closing a place that passed inspection 6 months ago. In reality the kids OUTSIDE almost all of the time so these issues are even less concerning. The Ranch had been my kids favorite place for years and they are devastated that they won’t be able to go back.
Cost of insurance is the problem I suspect they can’t solve. Just a guess though. Unfortunate for those who rely on it.
Agree, unless their insurance carrier found out about all this and dropped them. I would not operate a daycare uninsured.
Sell that land for cash and hit the road
F the MadCity
Name it!
Matters not.
I read somewhere that the mayor closed the place down. While Madison is the largest HOA in the state, the Queen does not have that authority.
What does chap the mayor is that this place is not within sight of the roadway (Hoy Road) and her snoops cannot spot her silly ordinance violations from the street and leave little violation notes.
As the story states , the city did not shut it down. Don't worry, I'm going to get the fire inspection and post
Yall bitch about HOAs incessantly, but it keeps out the undesirables yall also bitch about.
The City of Madison simply wanted to close the Ranch and loopholes and ways to do it all while wiping their hands clean and claiming they had no involvement whatsoever! The Ranch isn't at fault here, they have passed 45 FOURTY FIVE inspections until now, it makes no sense. Someone within the city government must have it out for them. I think we know who.
These regs are important for persons unable to take action for themselves such as small children, the elderly and infirm. It can be very expensive to retrofit existing buildings not built for the purpose and/or not built to current codes.
Wonder how many public elementary schools could pass the regulations seeing as those schools house children as young as K-4?
We have a HOA and are overrun with renters. You know nothing !
I am 100% with @7:23. This does not seem above board at all. To pass consistently for years and then suddenly fail to the point of shutting it down? No. Not buying that at all. De facto eminent domain by Mother Mary and her minions. "The city did not shut it down" is just what I'd expect to come out of city hall. It's called "deflecting".
Maybe there is a developer behind the curtain who wants to subdivide the property? Nah, this is in the city, not the county.
The Ranch simply needs to succeed and join the Gluckstadt territory as another do-whatever-you-want business for everyone to enjoy. If you can't understand the need to be hard-nosed and excessively annoying about codes and covenants then you obviously haven't driven through Jackson, Pearl, Richland, Florence etc.. It is my dream that the Queen would be even more aggressive against some of the questionable establishments and houses in Madison.
Believe what you want to, but no way my kid is going to a daycare that can't pass fire inspection. And no way I would write the insurance.
Why would the city want to close the Ranch other than these life/safety concerns?
I imagine it is very difficult for these parents who are already being shred with the cost to begin with. Now they gotta get lubed up again to get placement in another facility. Likely because the daycare can no longer afford INSANE insurance costs. MAGA.
That was my first thought when I heard it.
This is what no one is mentioning: They failed a health department inspection! Do I think what the city is doing is right? NO! Especially if Mayor Mary is involved. Did they fail inspection by the health department? Yes. The things they were not in compliance with are not hard to complete/do.
Now, I will add there's one place down the road from the ranch that has multiple complaints that were investigated and have true evidence of child abuse, yet their doors are still open.... It's part of a church so that explains it.
They failed the September inspection. Not records of insurance for vehicles, no fire inspection form, no vaccine records for the animals..... I would not send my child to this place. In fact, I actually considered this place for my child last summer and this school year, until I looked up the health department inspection.
How many children are in the after school care? The report on the news said a large number.
Ownership changed hands from mother to son. Maybe the son isn’t keeping the Ranch as well maintained as mom did? People complaining about loving CC Ranch years ago. Have they seen it recently? I haven’t but Occams Razor says it has some issues and the new owner didn’t take them seriously enough to address them since February.
Doing more digging. Got the fire inspection reports. Spoke to the Fire Chief. Going to contact the owner today. We going to run this down as we did the Annandale story.
Yay! Thank you, KF!
In case my question did not post - what is the "Annandale story"?
Prime real-estate! Wonder who's been eyeballing that nice, prime plot of land. Sure would be nice to pave it over, cram some more patio homes in there!
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