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[4:51]
to defer just for a minuteack to
[4:53]
Misss Slomski who wants to add
[4:54]
one more thing to her testimony.
[4:58]
Thank you. I know we're rushing
[4:59]
through chair just to make
[4:59]
sure we're following your
[5:00]
schedule as my, my colleague
[5:02]
Mark Heffley and I wanted to
[5:04]
make sure that we did include
[5:05]
your abandoned boats and we
[5:07]
wanna to thank you Jeroy Kulik
[5:07]
for your leadership on the
[5:09]
abandoned boat process. Think of
[5:10]
our conversationspresentative
[5:11]
Murky and Representative
[5:12]
Harkins, but it, you know, how
[5:14]
wet talked through I mean it is
[5:15]
tied to everything that we're
[5:16]
talking about today, pe from the
[5:18]
economic development perspective
[5:20]
in our recreation, which of
[5:21]
course we're gonna hear from
[5:22]
my colleague heremarkk Jeeneret,
[5:23]
but we have the Liberty P
[5:24]
parkkribbbi Investments
[5:25]
Amphitheater and there we
[5:26]
have an issue with a lot of
[5:28]
these boats that are are
[5:29]
derelict and abandoned boats
[5:30]
that were now able to remove and
[5:32]
allow folks to park there and
[5:34]
enjoy the best recreation spot
[5:36]
right Jake on the lake here on,
[5:38]
on the waterfront. So that's one
[5:39]
thing I want to really thank you
[5:39]
for your leadership and be able
[5:40]
to do that. It's been great to
[5:42]
work with the fish and Boat
[5:43]
Commission. Tim especially and
[5:46]
Ty Saor Cool to work through all
[5:47]
of these specifics. It's been a
[5:48]
huge undertaking and I know
[5:50]
we're upsetting some people, but
[5:51]
we've had a lot of abandoned
[5:53]
boats for a long time. we're,
[5:54]
we're close to 50 abandoned
[5:55]
boats that we have here in the
[5:55]
port of
[5:57]
er ie e and we really thank you
[5:58]
for your leadership and helping
[5:59]
us move forward and get rid of
[6:00]
those abandoned boats. So I
[6:01]
wanna to make sure we recognize
[6:02]
you for that. Well you know, and
[6:04]
I wanna thank everybody who
[6:06]
really started this and that
[6:07]
would it started with the
[6:08]
Pittsburgh Safe Boating
[6:09]
Councilil coming up with this
[6:10]
and saying we need legislation
[6:14]
on this and them going to Tim
[6:16]
and that's how it all started.
[6:18]
So thanks to them it's we were
[6:20]
able to get this done. We truly
[6:21]
appreciate it and thanks to all
[6:22]
you members for for your votes
[6:24]
to move that so quickly through
[6:25]
the legislature. So we really
[6:26]
appreciate
[6:27]
that as well. and not to take up
[6:28]
too much time, we want to make
[6:29]
sure we caught that through as
[6:30]
well. Thank you. thank you.
[6:38]
So I'm here today in my capacity
[6:39]
as president and founder of Fish
[6:42]
USA we are an e-commerce company
[6:45]
that focuses exclusively on
[6:48]
selling fishing tackle apparel
[6:52]
and boating gear for anglers. We
[6:54]
are located in Fairview close to
[6:57]
where Walnut Creek is. We employ
[6:59]
roughly 100 people at our
[7:01]
facility, all of whom you know,
[7:04]
work in the fishing industry. So
[7:05]
we also operate
[7:05]
a
[7:08]
a walk in what we call a pro
[7:09]
shop so we have
[7:12]
we shipped the majority of our
[7:14]
product out across the country
[7:16]
some of it internationally, but
[7:18]
we do operate a a walk-in
[7:22]
facility opens 7 days a week for
[7:24]
customers to come in and buy the
[7:26]
tackle that we saw. So we carry
[7:29]
over 80,000 different products
[7:31]
in our facility and we draw
[7:35]
customers from not only the
[7:37]
eriee area but really all over
[7:37]
the country.
[7:42]
We also have the ability you can
[7:43]
order online and then come to
[7:44]
our store and pick it up and we
[7:46]
see a lot of people they're
[7:48]
coming toerie to fish. They
[7:50]
place an order and then when
[7:51]
they get here they'll stop at
[7:52]
the store to pick pick up
[7:53]
product and
[7:56]
The,
[8:00]
you know, we support a broad
[8:02]
range of types of employment we
[8:04]
have everything from IT people
[8:05]
to accounting
[8:07]
purchasing people, marketing
[8:08]
people,
[8:08]
people
[8:12]
fishing experts who work in our
[8:14]
pro shop or support our
[8:17]
customers through like our call
[8:19]
center and then we also have a
[8:19]
distribution facility.
[8:25]
we're excited to be moving to
[8:28]
Ironworks Square, which is a
[8:29]
redevelopment project on West
[8:29]
Wall Street.
[8:32]
West 1 Hall Street is the old
[8:35]
industrial corridor oferiee and
[8:35]
like a lot of ererie that
[8:40]
area has been in decline as a
[8:42]
lot of that heavy industry moved
[8:44]
out anderie's been looking to
[8:46]
how do we revitalize that old
[8:47]
industrial corridor
[8:50]
so the ironwork squares a kind
[8:53]
of an anchor project for this
[8:55]
redevelopment project in the
[8:56]
city oferie
[8:58]
Part of it is built around the
[9:00]
old ireriee Maeable iron
[9:02]
facility. So it's trying to
[9:05]
retain that heritage of the old
[9:06]
industrial building but
[9:09]
modernize it and make it
[9:12]
adapted to businesses that are
[9:14]
working today inerriese so we're
[9:18]
that facility if you drive down
[9:20]
wall Street you should see it.
[9:21]
it's on 12th and Cherry
[9:24]
it's really a pilot project that
[9:27]
the city ofvi is working on our
[9:29]
building will be located to the
[9:30]
west of the building that's
[9:31]
there and it's still being
[9:32]
developed but
[9:34]
we're looking forward to being
[9:35]
able to
[9:36]
attract people
[9:40]
including tourists into that
[9:42]
12th Street quaror as we move
[9:44]
back intoeriee from where we are
[9:45]
out in Fairview.
[9:48]
we're working with the
[9:50]
redevelopment authorority, the
[9:51]
city oferiee and a number of
[9:52]
other entities to make that
[9:53]
project
[9:58]
if I can digress a bit I I so
[10:00]
I've lived iner my whole life.
[10:01]
My father grew up
[10:04]
clean and blue ike at a fishho
[10:09]
if you don't know ereriee has a
[10:10]
long history in the fishing
[10:11]
world.
[10:15]
ack in the 18h00s and the early
[10:17]
19h00s, we were a commercial
[10:19]
fishing port. We were known as
[10:21]
the freshwater fishing capital
[10:21]
of the world.
[10:25]
at one point we were
[10:28]
producing 800,000 pounds of fish
[10:29]
out of the port of Lakeeriee. So
[10:31]
as you look where we are right
[10:32]
here down at the dock. this was
[10:34]
all commercial fishing,
[10:36]
commercial fishing boats,
[10:39]
cleaning houses, we built boats
[10:40]
down at the water. It was all
[10:43]
commercial side of the fishing
[10:43]
world.
[10:48]
as I'm sure you know, the, you
[10:50]
know, between the pollution,
[10:53]
overfishing, we really that
[10:55]
commercial industry just over
[10:58]
time pretty much evaporated.
[10:59]
Today we have I think,
[11:02]
essentially one boat working as
[11:04]
a commercial fishing boat out
[11:05]
oferiee. I think we have 3
[11:08]
licenses Canada is a much
[11:11]
bigger commercial fishery on
[11:14]
Lakeeriee than we have, but the
[11:15]
commercial fishing in areas
[11:17]
is almost nonexistent
[11:22]
what we have replaced it with
[11:24]
though is recreational fishing
[11:26]
and that has continued to grow
[11:32]
in the in the area. So as Mr.
[11:34]
Hfffley said, walleye fishing is
[11:36]
probably the most widely known
[11:38]
species that people fish for.
[11:40]
it is really
[11:45]
as Mark has said at other
[11:46]
presentations that he's he's
[11:47]
made
[11:50]
when you talk about the good old
[11:51]
days of walle fishing. those are
[11:52]
today. It's really never been
[11:54]
better. People come up here
[11:58]
I don't know if it can be too
[11:59]
good, but when
[12:01]
we have charter boats that go
[12:02]
out and they're back of the dock
[12:04]
in 2 hours because everybody on
[12:06]
the boat got their limit and
[12:08]
everybody's happy and they're
[12:09]
back at the back of the dogs. So
[12:10]
it
[12:12]
anglers are