DURANT, OK - Durant city leaders continue to debate a proposed new movie theater. At the heart of the issue - Should economic development agencies bring in new business at the expense of existing ones? Josh Stevenson was at Monday night's city council meeting and files this report.

If you want to catch a flick in Durant without having to drive to Sherman, the Durant Twin Cinema is the only ticket in town, but city leaders are looking to change that by offering a theater chain from Tulsa $500,000 in incentives to build a new theater in Durant.

"If the city will do this to us, what is to stop them from doing it to someone else?" says, Rene Lemons, the general manager of the Durant Twin Cinema.

Lemons says she doesn't have an issue with a new theater coming to town, but she says she does have a problem with the city offering big money to bring in more competition.

Usually economic development money is spent bringing in manufacturing jobs, not retail stores, but Durant mayor Jerry Tomlinson says to compete for new business the city needs to try new things.

"A community has to think out of the box on occasion," Tomlinson said after Monday's city council meeting.

While on its own merits a theater offers a modest tax return to the city, the Durant Industrial Development Authority believes the theater will be a beacon for other businesses like stores and restaurants.

Mayor Tomlinson says he believes that more competition can be a good thing.

"It is a free enterprise market that we enjoy here, not just Bryan County or Oklahoma, but in our country," he says.

Some Durant City Council members still aren't sold on the idea.

"I don't think it is a done deal as we speak," Mayor Tomlinson said.

As for the Durant Twin Cinema, managers say regardless if a new theater comes to town, they believe in the end their customers will stay loyal, but Rene Lemons says she worries about the impact on future deals to bring new business to Durant.

"Are they going to do them the way they did us? The restaurants? The hotels? All of these businesses are at risk."

Mayor Tomlinson says negotiations regarding the new theater will continue, and that the final decision on what types of incentives prospective new businesses are offered is in the hands of the Durant Industrial Development Authority.