The Casper City council voted against forgiving a $150,000 debt from David Street Station. This debt is from a contract with David Street Station and the City.
Kevin Hawley, the Downtown Development Authority executive director, said they bought and tore down a state office building to build David Street Station about six years ago.
David Street Station agreed to pay the rent in another building on Ash Street so state employers would have somewhere to work.
Hawley said because of the drop in the oil and gas industry and the pandemic. They don’t have the money to pay the rent and Hawley was hoping they could forgive the debt.
“There’s no good outcome for the city either we pay you and liquidate our assets and dissolve the DDA and David Street Station or we work on an agreement to amend the contract to eat the $150,000 and we continue carrying costs and we keep going trying to survive 2020,” Hawley said.
Councilmember Ken Bates suggested looking into their finances from the spring and see how money was handled then. Hawley reminded the council that they are a part of the city and they can look at their books.
Councilmember Steve Cathey said he was afraid to forgive the debt because he doesn’t want to see a bill for $800,000 in 7 or 8 years. Hawley added they run like a non-profit.
“I can tell you our business plan is like any other non-profit, fundraise, fundraise, fundraise,” Hawley said. It’s not easy that we have to sell a community experience.”