DEWITT, Neb. (AP) -- The owner of a Fairbury manufacturing company says it has a deal to buy the abandoned Vise-Grip plant in DeWitt.
Prairie View Industries owner Dick Allen says he has no immediate plans for the plant, but did not want to see it torn down. He did not disclose terms of the deal.
Allen says he has no plans to move or expand his company, which makes metal ramps, shelves and benches, to DeWitt. He hopes to attract manufacturers to the 376,000-square-foot DeWitt building.
The Vise-Grip plant closed last October after nearly 70 years of operation. William Petersen, a Danish immigrant and blacksmith, invented the Vise-Grip tool nearly 90 years ago in DeWitt when trying to find a way to clamp down pieces of metal while he worked on them.