Tempers flared Tuesday night after the Madison Board of Ealdormen rejected an appeal from Austin O'Kelly, owner of The Ranch daycare center, on a failed fire inspection. WAPT reported:
Kathy O'Kelly opened the daycare center in 1980. The Ranch became quite popular as children are able to interact with farm animals and spend much of their time outdoors. However, Ms. O'Kelly was operating the day care center out of her home as she lived on the premises. Since The Ranch was home-based daycare, the rules are more relaxed than those for a commercial business. As Madison grew, building and fire codes changed but Ms. O'Kelly's home was grandfathered.
The long-time owner sold the business to her son in 2023. This is where the problems start. Since Austin O'Kelly did not live on the premises, the city considers the day care center to be a commercial operation and thus subject to commercial fire codes.
Inspection reports state the fire department advised Mr. O'Kelly to install a fire-sprinkler system, fire alarm linked to sprinklers, and a fire hydrant (which would require the installation of a quarter-mile water line). Mr. O'Kelly said bringing the facility up to the fire code would cost nearly $300,000.
Thus, The Ranch did not pass the city's fire inspection. The Health Department in turn revoked its license. Mr. O'Kelly appealed the fire inspection decision to the Board Tuesday night. The Board unanimously rejected his appeal.
Kingfish note: The closure of The Ranch generated a storm of outrage on where else but TikTok as numerous supporters accused Madison of government overreach or trying to force Mr. O'Kelly to sell the property to developers.
16 comments:
Papa MS guy is one serious weirdo.
Change zoning from residential to commercial which as more stringent codes. Shut it down. Steal the land through forcing them out of business. Sounds like a wholesome goal for Mayor Mary.
I hope The Ranch can get up to the new codes that weren't required until rezoning and sit on that land until after Marys tenure and destroy her wet dream.
Before all of you "Mary haters" jump on here, get your facts straight. Austin is a jerk and refused to cooperate from day one.
FWIW, they were offered free legal services from an extremely heavy hitter from the legal world, and they didn't so much as send a text, so didn't seem too serious.
I understand the frustration, but if you want to go all in on the logic in those videos, quit buckling your children; anybody my age made it just fine without seatbelts in the 1960’s and before. It’s a tough call, but modern safety standards have to be followed at some point. There’s no ulterior motive and no land grab, it’s simply officials making a tough call with the safety of children in mind.
Yep. His mom is at fault too. She should have been doing updates slowly over time so it was such a massive rush and bill to do what was required by law.
If there were ever a situation and a child died, everyone would say "should have shut that place down years ago"...
Not convinced the son himself isn't the party interested in selling and/or developing the land.
Exactly! The "Mary haters" on here like to dream up their petty conspiracy theories as they don't live in Madison and are jealous of what we have here.
$300,000? Holy Shat I want to the quotes on that
Exactly, the city should have done this...
The MS State health department now requires this... so meet the new standard. Sprinklers are required in public spaces like this.
"The long-time owner sold the business to her son in 2023. . . . Since Austin O'Kelly did not live on the premises, the city considers the day care center to be a commercial operation and thus subject to commercial fire codes."
There's no way this came as a complete surprise to him, two years after he'd already closed on the deal.
There has to be be more to this story.
Move the Jackson Zoo to The Ranch.
The same people complaining about the Ranch having to shut down would be the first to file lawsuits against the City if there had been a fire and City had known the facility wasn't up to code. You don't get to have it both ways. Either the fire codes are uniformly enforced, or you forfeit your right to sue if your kid dies in a fire. It was actually a little scary that they had that many kids on site and didn't even have a fire plug nearby - much less sprinklers, extinguishers, and other safety equipment. Tragedy waiting to happen.
Kingfish is jealous of the guy who takes to the internet to object. Sidle up with Mary if you want to, KF. Gotta play them cards.
Look at that fat Madison “firefighter” in the background with his hands in his pockets.
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