BY STEVEN OBERBECK
The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Jun 15 2011 05:45PM Updated Jun 15, 2011 10:46PM
But for Richard Prazen, an artisan who previously owned Pioneer Manufacturing and Weldings in West Valley City, Utah always has been a good place to operate a manufacturing business, “compared to other places I’ve been.”
So on the one hand he said he couldn’t “imagine us only getting a ‘C’ grade,” before acknowledging that times have been tough for a lot of the state’s small manufacturers as the state waded through the Great Recession. After creating such work as the giant arachnid that greets riders before they climb on the “Spider” roller coast at Lagoon, he turned over his business to a partner just prior to the downturn and hired on as an artisan with several other companies, only to fall prey to the wave of downsizing that swept the industry.
He now runs a small shop in South Jordan, where he manufactures custom-made iron railings and other metal work. “I have a sense that things are getting better,” he said.
To read the whole article, click here.
