(Spirit Lake)– Spirit Lake-based Pure Fishing has been awarded a 75-thousand dollars grant through the state’s Economic Development Setaside Account, or EDSA. The funding will assist the company in a four million dollar expansion project. 30-thousand dollars will come from the city.
Ron Crowley, Director of Corporate Engineering for Pure Fishing, says the expansion will allow them to produce a new water-based soft bait known as “Gulp”. Crowley says it’s designed to degrade safely after it’s been in the water about nine months. He says they’ve had requests for the biodegradable bait from a number of countries.
Crowley says the new product iwll result in the retention of 12 jobs and the creation of 13 new ones.
He says they plan to start up production of the new product in May.
In addition to the city, other entities involved in the project were the Northwest Iowa Planning and Development Commission, Iowa Lakes Community College, Iowa Department of Economic Development and the Iowa Great Lakes Corridor of Opportunity.
