Joint Powers Board Awaits Three Crowns Report
- Tom Morton, Townsquare Media
The Three Crowns Golf Course continues to bleed money on the site of the former Amoco refinery.
And the Amoco Reuse Agreement Joint Powers Board that oversees the development of that property awaits a report from a task force set up earlier this year to look at the problems, board chairman Bryce Row said Wednesday.
"Right now we're kind of in a waiting mode to find out what the research is showing us, what's the data telling us," Row said.
Since the course opened in 2005, the board has subsidized it for a total of $4.6 million to $4.7 million.
According to the board's budget for the 2014-2015 fiscal year, the board will underwrite Three Crowns for $573,491, which covers a cash shortfall from the past fiscal year and about $420,000 of that will be for this year.
The board formed the task force composed of three members of the ARAJPB and two board members of Three Crowns LLC, Row said in April "What’s on the table? That’s everything,” he said then.
The task force will report its data and recommendations in January, and the board will take a couple of months to review them, Row said Wednesday.
"And then of course comes the implementation," he said.
"So really, the needed change that we want to occur is probably still at least another year away," Row said. "We're just taking the steps that we think is appropriate to make sure we identify the cause of the problems so we can give good solutions."
The management of Three Crowns, which is owned by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based OB Sports, also has been in limbo because of the sudden departure of its manager Chris Moore last summer.
Board member Brandon Daigle said Wednesday that OB Sports has told him it will announce its new general manager in December.
The ARAJPB was created in 1998 when Amoco — now BP — signed an agreement with the city of Casper and Natrona County to oversee the development of the property. The Casper City Council and the Natrona County Commission appoint the board members.
The joint powers board does not receive any funding from the City of Casper or Natrona County.
BP pledged more than $25 million toward the goal of replacing the number of jobs lost when the refinery shut down in 1991.
Besides BP, the joint powers board receives revenue from interest income, and sales and leases of its property on the former refinery site now known as the Platte River Commons and the former tank farm now known as the Salt Creek Heights Business Center.
More From K2 Radio
