AP Photo/Lois BernsteinMichael Jackson will be making one final visit to his beloved Neverland.
The Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department has just confirmed to E! News that plans are under way to hold a memorial service at the famed estate/amusement park in the hills outside Santa Barbara.
"Our guys are meeting as we speak with the California Highway Patrol to discuss the security issues," says Lt. Butch Arnoldi, a department spokesman.
Sources close to the family say that there will be some kind of public memorial over the holiday weekend, perhaps with Jackson's body lying in state.
The body is expected to be transported from Los Angeles on Thursday. A public viewing will take place Friday and a private memorial service will be held on Sunday.
"Our role will primarily be traffic, but also crowd control," adds Arnoldi. "We will also be making sure there is no trespassing on neighboring ranches and stuff like that. We would be stationed on the perimeter of the house. The actual roadway will be the responsibility of the CHP."
Jackson's brothers Jackie, Jermaine and Tito visited the grounds over the weekend and earlier Tuesday a delivery truck was spotted dropping off boxes at Neverland.
Arnoldi says the sheriff's department usually only gets involved when there is a huge crowd of people expected. He did not have any specifics on a date or time for any service.
There is no indication that Michael Jackson will be buried at the ranch, however. Indeed, asked point-blank during a press conference yesterday, father Joe Jackson said his son would not be interred at the ranch.
Given the pop icon's global celebrity, his family is proceeding slowly to ensure proper security arrangements are in place for what will surely be a massive gathering of fans when Neverland opens its gates on Friday.
Joe Jackson said Monday he wants the memorial to be a fitting tribute to his son's legacy.
As for that mystery delivery this morning, the driver was mum, saying he had signed a nondisclosure agreement. He would only tell reporters he was dropping off items, not picking them up, in his Beverly Hills Allied Moving and Storage van.
But Jackson family attorney Londell McMillan told CNN the movers were at the 2,500-acre estate to protect Michael's possessions from looters.
The singer lost ownership of Neverland when he defaulted on a loan, but it was saved from foreclosure when Colony Capital, a private equity firm run by Michael's billionaire friend Tom Barrack, bought it in a joint venture with Jackson to help bail him out.
Colony Capital planned to spend millions to return the estate to its former glory.
Representatives of the neighboring community, however, have been outspoken against the idea of turning a sleepy, rural region of Santa Barbara County into a West Coast version of Elvis Presley's Graceland.
(Originally published June 20, 2009, at 10:18 a.m. PT)