Jared Carson sounds like a heck of a guy. His local paper, the Custer County Chronicle, named him Citizen of the Year for 2018 for his numerous community-boosting activities.
However, one of those activities, the purchase of the state’s former youth detention facility, Star Academy, by his new company Sustainable Light Industrial Complex and Energy (SLIC-E) in 2018 may not have been a sustainable investment. Seth Tupper reports that SLIC-E has defaulted on its payments to the state and has until 5 p.m. today to deliver a check to Pierre and stave off repo man Ryan Brunner:
…The company missed the first annual payment this past May, which triggered a three-month grace period dictated by state law, according to Ryan Brunner, commissioner of the state’s Office of School and Public Lands.
After the three-month period ended last month, the next legal step was the state’s issuance of a default notice, which triggered another 30-day grace period that ends today.
If the company’s payment does not arrive by 5 p.m. today, Brunner said, he will file repossession paperwork Friday at the Custer County Courthouse and the state will take possession of the property [Seth Tupper, “Custer Company Behind on $116K Payment to State,” Rapid City Journal, 2019.09.05].
As recently as June, Carson was in the press boosting the project, proudly showing off the art galleries, manufacturing plant, and barbecue restaurant that had started up on the site. Now Carson tells Tupper he’s “parted ways” (Tupper’s words) with the company and remains SLIC-E Holdings president only on paper.
I hope Carson’s former partners can wire some money to Pierre before Brunner goes home for the day. The current uses sound a lot more fun and conducive to the local economy than anything the state might do. But if the state does repossess the facility, maybe Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg can turn it into that mythical meth prison he promised us during his campaign.
The former Star would be an asset to the State’s park system as a meeting & retreat center catering to organizational and corporate planners. Administratively it could fit under CSP. For trainers and retreat planners it offers the ideal private and semi-isolated location often desirable for serious business with minimal intrusion.
It seems like a bait-and-switch being pulled by the heavy-handed government AG’s office to stick it to this poor fellow. I say they should just raze the place and build a new Hanna-Barbera themed park, owned by the government, and run by those fellows and gals in the legislatures who are insaner than most.
RC Journal reports that a check was delivered late yesterday (9/5) to Commissioner Brunner who will now attempt to determine whether it will clear.
Indeed! Someone paid $116,588 at 5:26 p.m. CDT in Pierre yesterday, covering SLIC-E’s overdue payment and interest. Looks like AG Ravnsborg will have to look elsewhere for his meth prison.
Maybe SLIC-E could open a drama company.
Whoa—According to Seth Tupper’s article linked in the previous comment, SLIC-E gave the state one check by the May 1 deadline but asked the state not to cash it until they got a wire transfer, which didn’t come through. SLIC-E then bounced a second check before delivering this one yesterday.
Can we just declare breach of contract at the bounced check and repossess?