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.
16 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.
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