[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