State budget cuts prompt closure of Indiana Sheriffs' Youth Ranch

Yahoo

05-05-2025

The Indiana Sheriffs' Youth Ranch in Clay County is closing, the result of state budget cuts, according to Scott Minier, youth ranch executive director.
"State budget cuts have abruptly and prematurely ended a long-term training and leasing agreement between the Indiana Department of Homeland Security and the Indiana Sheriffs' Youth Ranch (ISYR)," Minier stated in a news release.
Indiana Sheriff's Youth Ranch closing
The Indiana Sheriffs' Youth Ranch in Clay County is closing, the result of state budget cuts, according to Scott Minier, youth ranch executive director.
ISYR will permanently close as a result. The academy has worked with future law enforcement officers, at-risk kids, young witnesses and victims of crime.
'Since 2019, IDHS had for $48,000 annually shared our 62-acre private training retreat's lodge, classroom building, animal kennels, pole barns, lakes and rolling, wooded acreage for search and rescue, K-9, drone and hazardous materials training," Minier said.
State agencies have also used the Youth Ranch property for water dive and rescue exercises, stop-the-bleed planning, hosting international and out-of-state guests as well as celebrating holidays, according to the news release.
IDHS' lease was to continue through 2029 with renewals signed in two-year options to coincide with the state's biennial budget cycles.
State figures show no increases in rent have been paid over the first six years of the expected 10-year period. In 2018, the state of Indiana occupied the ISYR property at no charge.
Minier said the $48,000 gap in funding is too much for dedicated volunteers to raise and donors to contribute, given other construction and operating expenses.
'With the help of some visionary sheriffs, generous donors and dedicated volunteers, our Youth Ranch trudged through its bureaucratic start-up years, we survived state-mandated COVID-19 business closures cancelling our special events and face-to-face fundraisers, we demolished unsafe facilities, remodeled existing structures, built two new year-round youth cabins and began construction on two others — despite the nation's supply chain issues and runaway inflation,' Minier said.
The most important accomplishment was engaging more than 2,000 K-college Hoosier students each year in day visits, overnights, weeklong leadership academies and special off-season events like the increasingly popular Sheriffs' Easter Egg Hunts, Sheriffs' Pumpkin Painting Parties and Sheriffs' Breakfasts With Santa, he said.
Those events provided law enforcement with opportunities to bond with at-risk kids "like never before," Minier stated.
An appraisal is being conducted, so the 62-acre Youth Ranch property can be offered at auction May 31, along with equipment, furniture and accessories.
If a reserve bid based on the appraisal is not met, the property and improvements will be listed on the public real estate market with Greg Clingan Auction & Real Estate of Covington, Ind.
Any proceeds from the sale will proportionally refund major naming-rights donors after an ISYR mortgage, other debt and expenses are satisfied.
ISYR's training retreat is located one mile north of I-70 between Indianapolis and Terre Haute along State Road 59. Its 62-acre rolling, wooded property offers three semi-private managed lakes, a five-bedroom stone and timber home with 4.5 bathrooms and a new gourmet kitchen, two new year-round cabins, two pole barns and a training center with full kitchen and two half-baths.
An auction will be conducted by Clingan on May 31, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 5325 N. State Road 59, Brazil.
Equipment, furniture and accessories will be offered in addition to the property and buildings – including like-new Polaris ATVs, fishing kayaks, two zero-turn mowers, Stihl and DeWalt power tools, commercial kitchen equipment, office furniture, computer screens and printers, picnic tables, gas grills, bunkbeds, bedroom suits and household items.
Go to www.GregClingan.com for details.