The Sports and Exhibition Authority is seeing early returns in its effort to clear the North Shore Riverfront Park of illegally parked boats through a new state law.
Pennsylvania’s Act 28, enacted in January, enables for the first time the SEA to remove at-risk, derelict or abandoned boats without liability. The board must give 14 days’ notice before removing the boat and 30 days’ notice before disposing of it.
The board was able to remove the three so-called “nuisance boats” it identified docked along the park ahead of the NFL Draft in April, according to Executive Director Aaron Waller. Each boat had already violated the 48-hour docking policy the SEA instituted last September for boats without a valid license agreement.
While owners of two boats moved them on their own accord after receiving the initial notice, the SEA had to obtain the third boat owner’s name and address to formally cite them before they moved the boat, Waller said.
The SEA is dealing with another illegally parked boat that does not have a vessel number, meaning the state will have to identify it before the board can take action, Waller said.
The board’s solicitor, Morgan Hanson, believed the new law was working as intended.
“For years, there was no process and there was no opportunity to remove derelict boats that were moved to the SEA docks,” he said. “It is probably slower than the boating community would like, but progress has been made.”
In other SEA news from Thursday’s board meeting:
• The board approved more than a half-dozen renovation projects at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center Downtown, worth around $1 million in total. Upgrades included new lighting in the parking garage, fireproofing repairs and a fresh coat of paint for the architectural steel on the fourth floor, which was last repainted in 2009, according to Project Manager James Thomas.
• The David L. Lawrence Convention Center is tracking for a record-setting $23.3 million in revenue this year, according to General Manager Tim Muldoon. He highlighted the American Trucking Association’s ongoing National Truck Driving Championships, which drew over 400 truck drivers to Pittsburgh.