Price residents struggle with housing costs, but the city has hope

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Many residents of Price, face challenges with housing costs, especially those on fixed incomes, and hope their elected officials will prioritize creating better jobs beyond the prevalent $15-an-hour positions.
The local economy suffered significantly after the closure of coal mines, once a major source of well-paying jobs, according to longtime residents.

PRICE — When you walk into Gent's Hairstyling in Price, it's important to know that a good haircut often comes with a good old-fashioned teasing.

You'd think that after 54 years of Lenny Pagano messing with his buddies, they'd know better. But the bonds they've built through the years — well, there's nothing like it.

"I don't know what I would do if I didn't get to see all these guys, you know?" Pagano said.

At this point, it's not really about the money for Pagano.

"I come in here during the week, not even for a haircut, and talk to Lenny," said Price resident Rodney Wilde. They talk about all sorts of things, from sports and politics to friends who've passed and, of course, what Price used to be like.

"You know, when the town was booming, I used to work until 10 o'clock at night," Pagano said.

Even now, Price isn't a dying town. But the guys at Gent's often wonder where all the good jobs are. People in Price are concerned about housing costs, and since many people in town are on fixed incomes, it's something they want to see their elected officials pay special attention to.

"We have a lot of jobs that are $15 an hour, but we need more, better jobs," Pagano said.

The coal mines in Price and Carbon County used to be good-paying work. Wilde spent 35 years mining coal, and he'll be the first to tell you how badly the local economy was hurt when the last one shut down.

"We had 12 or 13 coal mines around here at one time and now, here in Carbon County, we don't have one mine," Wilde said. "I wish coal mines would come back."

People who want to see coal make a comeback know that probably isn't going to happen. But, there is hope for better days ahead. There's construction for new businesses in Price, Utah State University Eastern gives the place a college feel and people are moving in.

At least in Gent's Hairstyling, hearing stories about Price's past just might make you feel good about its future.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.