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March 28, 2024 3:02 pm
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Custom Benches To Beautify Downtown Overton

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

A Work In Progress: One of a set of ten shaded street benches custom designed and fabricated by Artistic Ironworks in Las Vegas for installation along Overton’s main street business district. PHOTO BY VERNON ROBISON/Moapa Valley Progress.

They’ve been shaped by the blacksmith’s forge and assembled by the welder’s arc, and they will soon be installed in Overton to help beautify the downtown area.

A set of ten unique ironwork street benches, designed and fabricated by Artistic Ironworks in Las Vegas, are about to make their appearance in the local downtown business district. The set is part of an ongoing effort by the Moapa Valley Revitalization Project (MVRP) to freshen up the downtown area. Their expected arrival is sometime this fall.

“We have been working for several years to make the downtown area more appealing,” said MVRP members, MaryKaye Washburn. “We feel like this project will go a long way toward that.”

The benches are being funded by a $12,000 grant from the Nevada Commission on Tourism. The grant was awarded to MVRP for the project during the 2016-17 fiscal year. It took most of that year for MVRP members to zero in on just the right design for downtown Overton.
“We knew that we wanted something unique to Overton, and something that you wouldn’t see anywhere else,” Washburn said.

They began by looking online for benches. Washburn said that there were a lot of choices available there. But none of them really fit the bill.
“They weren’t really customized for our town, but kind of mass produced,” Washburn said. “Nothing quite was the right look and feel.”

Then they went throughout the region and got quotes from various artists who worked in metals. Many of these people had done public artworks for areas of Las Vegas and other communities.
“Of course, there were a lot of unique ideas out there, but the styles didn’t really fit in without locale,” Washburn said. “There were a lot more modern art style renderings that just didn’t really mesh right with the hometown feel we were looking for.”

Finally, MVRP members came into contact with the people at Artistic Ironworks. This shop has been doing business for 45 years. It has been in its current location at Charleston Blvd and Commerce St. for about 13 years now. Artistic Ironworks does an amazing array of products in iron, much of which is proudly displayed in their unique showroom.

All of these unique items are designed, built, fashioned and fabricated right there on site. The business employs nine certified blacksmiths and 20 welders. And the workshop, which is connected to the showroom, is a constant hum of activity.

Washburn said that the initial quotes for the benches came in at about double the amount of the grant. That would have put them completely out of reach for the project. But when Artistic Ironwork owner Tom Prato heard that it was for a non-profit organization to beautify the small town of Overton, he was eager to make it work. He deeply reduced the price of the benches and also gave a donation to make up the difference.
“They were very generous to us,” Washburn said. “We so appreciate them because it certainly wouldn’t have been possible without that.”

In a recent visit to the shop, Artistic Ironworks sales manager Larry Torregrossa showed us the Overton benches that are still in progress. They are truly things of unique beauty, each meticulously handcrafted. All of the curves in the iron were done on site in the shop’s forges. The back of each bench depicts a different desert-themed design cut by a special plasma cutter into thick metal sheet.
“We have made the designs on each bench different from one another,” Torregrossa said. “You won’t find benches like them anywhere else in the world.”

The benches are also designed to last. They were made with extra heavy iron tubing for the frames. Each one has its own attached shade structure above it. And all of the benches will end up with a smooth powder coat green finish that will help preserve it from rust and sun damage.
“These will last 100 years, even if they were watered every day,” Torregrossa said.

Torregrossa estimates that it took about 16 man hours to fashion each of the ten benches.
“We are so excited about the way they have turned out,” Washburn said of the benches. “I don’t think it could have worked out any better.”

MVRP members are targeting sometime next month as a reasonable timeframe to have the benches installed in Overton. That would put them in place just in time for the Veteran’s Day Parade, the big annual downtown event on November 11.

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1 thought on “Custom Benches To Beautify Downtown Overton”

  1. I do blacksmihing and there is nothing forged on that bench. It is basic cut and weld fabrication… $12,000 for 10 benches comes out to $1,200 each., and I can see that I never charged what I could have when I had my shop years ago…… I would have felt guilty charging $1,200 for that.

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