[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9527]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      RECOGNIZING DOME TECHNOLOGY

 Mr. RISCH. Mr. President, as a part of National Small Business 
Week it is important for us to recognize companies who have a history 
of continually pushing the bounds of improvement and expansion. America 
depends on small businesses to propel the country into future 
innovation and that is why I would like to honor Dome Technology from 
Idaho Falls, ID as the Idaho Small Business of the Week.
  Dome Technology builds thin shell monolithic domes which can be used 
for industrial bulk storage or for practical architectural facilities 
such as churches or gymnasiums. Though dome architecture has been used 
in the past, the specific technique used by Dome Technology was 
patented in Idaho in 1977 by three brothers, Barry, David, and Randy 
South. They began experimenting with dome technology in 1975 by 
spraying foam and concrete to the inside of a pressurized, dome-shaped 
fabric air form.
  Dome Technology has built some 500 monolithic domes in the past 30-
plus years all over the United States, Canada, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, 
Argentina, Germany, Jordan, Lithuania and multiple other countries. In 
addition to providing durable and multi-purpose structures, Dome 
Technology continues to work to create domes which can withstand 
environmental extremes such as hurricanes and earthquakes.
  In 2007, Dome Technology built the largest monolithic dome in the 
world. Currently, 75 percent of all concrete domes worldwide have been 
built by Dome Technology.
  But things haven't always been easy for this Idaho company. Dome 
Technology is an example of how a small business can overcome 
difficulty and rebound from economic hurdles. Prior to 2002, Dome 
Technology had been building on average 20 domes per year and employed 
135 people. But after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the 
company shrunk to 35 employees while demand and prices decreased.
  Dome Technology then borrowed around $1 million and diversified their 
products. Pivoting from large scale storage, the company began focusing 
on marketing their domes for architectural purposes such as churches, 
gymnasiums and community centers. Dome Technology has seen growth in 
the demand for schools built with dome technology and in 2007 built the 
first indoor water park in a dome.
  In addition to expanding the uses of architectural domes, Dome 
Technology began focusing on exporting their product internationally to 
countries such as Canada, Poland, Latvia, Morocco, Romania and 
Bulgaria. The company has now rebounded back to 120 employees and 
demand is steadily growing.
  Through experimentation and a devotion to quality, Dome Technology 
has proven itself to be a company which delivers a unique, quality 
product year after year. What strikes me the most about Dome Technology 
is their ability, as a specialized company with a niche product, to 
make the most of what could have been a depressed period of business 
and to use that as an impetus for improving their business model. Idaho 
is proud of small businesses like Dome Technology and I am especially 
proud to recognize them today in honor of National Small Business 
Week.

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