Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Start of Construction on Flood Resiliency Projects in Village of Clayton in Jefferson County

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the start of construction on a series of flood resiliency projects in the Village of Clayton, Jefferson County. The four projects were awarded nearly $6.3 million in grant funding through the State's Lake Ontario Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative. Once complete, these REDI-funded projects will help mitigate the impact of future high-water events and improve resiliency of the shoreline.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good afternoon, everyone. What a heavy lift to have to come here. I was in Manhattan this morning, dropped by Syracuse to make a major job announcement where I happened to be educated for four years, and I will always find an excuse to come to Clayton. You know that. Scott and everybody knows.

I am so glad to be here with our dream team. Commissioner Basil Seggos, who has a home up here. So, this is personal to him as well, and we just had the pleasure of walking along a boardwalk that was - Mayor, it was kind of a mess up until six weeks ago, right? Got it done in time for the boat shows, so we're making progress every step of the way.

But I want to thank him for his passion about what we're doing here. It's so evident that when you have someone who truly cares about a community as he does, as we all do to, what a difference it makes. Also, I'm joined by the New York State Secretary of State, it sounds like he's going to negotiate peace somewhere and good luck with that. Robert Rodriguez served in our legislature as a very distinguished senator, but I was able to pull him away and get him to take on the responsibility of overseeing the Resiliency Project, the ready projects, and about 500 other things that he is responsible for as Secretary of State. So, welcome to the North Country. He said it's his first visit, but I guarantee this'll not be your last.

Also, I know our state legislature - I always talked to Patty Ritchie. I don't think she can make it here today, but I've been up here many times with Patty. Well, we served as county clerks together, and that creates a special bond when you work together in a nonpartisan, good government way. So, I have fond recollection of working with Patty.

Mark Walczyk, I don't know if he was able to make it. No? He was invited. He's got other responsibilities, I'm sure. But also, William Johnson, our Chair of the Legislature, let's give him a round applause as well for his work here.

I did have a chance to work closely with Scott Gray. We were up here two years ago, and we held a really informative round table with the local businesses during the heat of the pandemic. It was almost exactly two years ago, and we brought everybody together and talked about how we continue to promote tourism and get New Yorkers to vacation in New York. And I do believe as a result of putting a spotlight on the magnificent, natural beauty, but the charm of the shops and the downtowns and the waterways, that we were able to attract more people. So, I know that because I always have trouble finding a hotel room here. So, I think things are going well, but, Scott, great to work with you.

Bobby Cantwell is here, I believe. Bobby? Let's say hi. Remember we walked around the marinas that were underwater? You remember that? Yeah, okay. I think my feet are just starting to dry out from that experience a couple years ago.

Pat Jareo, is that how you pronounce it, Pat? Did I get that right? Are you here? If you're not here, I'm going mess up your name. How do you say it? Jareo? Okay. Hochul gets mutilated all the time. So, I'm a little sensitive about it when that happens. So nice to see you.

And of course, Lance Peterson, the Town of Clayton Supervisor joined us. I come out of local government, 14 years as a Town Board Member, so I know what you go through. I've lived in your shoes. Can't even go to the grocery store because someone says, "Oh, your snowplow hit my mailbox." I like, "Well, let me come over and fix it." You know, that's what we do, right? So, I know how hard you work as a supervisor. And also one of my absolute favorites, someone I've walked the streets with in good times and in bad, and that is your outstanding Mayor. Norma Zimmer, I want to thank you for your dedication to public service and really just making sure that we all know the concerns of your community. Things really get bad here. And we've seen some tough, tough times for this community, but you've always been a steady voice. I've enjoyed our tours around to see this community through your eyes which has really been powerful. So, thanks to everyone.

I think just a few years back, I was here to celebrate the opening of the gazebo at Frink Park, and just everybody just was so happy. We're trying to just break through this pandemic and see a better time. I was here two years ago for the opening of the Antique Boat Museum, the changes that were made - great, I love this. You can't imagine how many times I've talked about this facility. It is a gem. It is so unique and the stories that you can learn about the people and the experiences over literally centuries up here is told through that museum. And so, I do talk about it a lot and we did, like I said, we held our roundtable up here as well.

And I think you've all heard my Thousand Island camping stories. My parents had very little money, but they would scrounge together, throw their six kids in the back of a Woodie. Remember the Woodie? You're all too young. The station wagons that had wood on this side. I'm not sure what the wood did, but we thought it was a really cool look, right? So, we'd come piling up here once a year and go camping at Wellesley Island. And I had a chance to go back and see that site where we learned how to be a risk taker, how to be a little gutsy. And I saw the cliffs that we literally jumped off of and I'm thinking I would never let my kids do that.

So, I really love the outdoors, but also this place is so beautiful. This place is part of my story. And I so appreciate that. And I also appreciate the fact that I grew up, other body of water, Lake Erie, and I've also seen how storms have battered communities. And the key is to build up resiliency the best way you can, because you know, it's coming, you know, things have changed a lot over the last couple of decades in terms of the severity of the storms that we're experiencing.

And what they call 100-year flooding in 2017. And then all of a sudden in 2019, it's another 100-year event. Somehow, we lost 98 years in there. We should have been left alone, right? So, that's what we're going through. I saw that in Lake Erie, I saw it in Lake Ontario and I absolutely saw it as I came up here and did go to the marina and walked in Bellas.

Oh my God, we all had boots on. Poor Misty would walk us through the basement there and she was still keeping it going. She's not here. She's probably out working hard. She works so hard, keeping it going. I mean, literally, I think it was across the street that she was having storage trailers and trying to cook the food in there and keeping it going.

It's all because of Mother Nature wreaking havoc on this community. So, we've been through a lot here, and I also do believe that more can always be done to bolster economic development in a community. What does that mean? Investing in our downtowns, our marinas, of course, because that's a major industry, the fishing industry. But also, just the shops and letting them bring people up here and letting them see how spectacular this is.

So, I've seen the damage. I was over at Spicer Marine. I think that's where we were walking around. I saw the restaurants, but I know that we have a lot to do. And now we are here to talk about progress being made. Real progress is being made. That's what we're talking about in terms of what we want to do.

I was there to announce many of the REDI Commission, the Resiliency and Economic Development Commission announcements. I always volunteered to come up here and do the ones here, and it was over $300 million on the table to help us fight back, build up resiliency, and to help the businesses and the homeowners be able to be more protected during the next big storm.

So, we've identified a lot of at-risk infrastructure projects and safety concerns, and those who live here knew what they were all along. You just needed support from the state government to get them done. Because when I was in local government, it was really hard to get money out of state government for anything.

So, I said, "Let's turn it around. Let's turn it around. These are our constituents. They shouldn't have to beg. They shouldn't have to just - on a hope and a prayer, make the effort to get money. It should just be given to them to spend in the places that'll build back these communities." So, we've reimagined a lot of these communities and I think we're starting to see the effects of this right now.

Right now, we've had over 134 projects funded, 64 in design phase, 29 in construction, 41 completed. But our local partners, and I want to thank everybody here who's been involved in the REDI Commission. A number of you are here for your vision and making sure that we stay focused on this, that we don't get distracted.

We don't go do something. We will make sure we get the job done. And so last September when I was brand new, probably was Governor just a very short time, maybe a couple of weeks, we announced $2.4 million to repair the wastewater treatment facility here in the pump stations. Now, those of you who are not in local government are like, "Okay, that's not fun stuff to talk about." When you're in local government, that's all we obsessed about because what happens underground affects your lives above ground.

And I lived that, and we never had enough money to do what we need to do. So, we wanted to make sure what was underwater in the 2019 flood could be fixed. Also, eliminate the overflows from the St. Lawrence River and avoid the health effects of that.

But we are also here today to announce some more projects. Let's keep it going, right? Let's keep people working, let's do some more. Construction is now underway on four additional REDI projects and I'll describe them. Focusing on the downtown business district, focusing on improving boating infrastructure, and I have a confession - I'm a boater. I love being on the water. As an aside, I literally just got finished with my day around nine o'clock the other night in Manhattan and there are ferries that go out along the East River, little bit different experience, but I just needed to be rejuvenated from the experience of being on the water and watching the sunset over the buildings. And it's just, it's a powerful force and it's something I do believe that after we've been so beaten down by the pandemic, this is a healing source for all of us, this beautiful water. So, we want to bring people, we want to make sure that everything's protected. So, we're focusing on our boating infrastructure as well.

And also again, making sure that we can withstand the effects of climate change. So together we're making $8.6 million of investments in all five projects combined. And I will tell you, this is smart money. This is absolutely smart money. This is how we start making real changes. So, the river walk, one of the crown jewels, we walked it. Mayor, I remember you walked me through that when it was fairly new and we talked about how beautiful it was and people, the boaters that came from elsewhere, had a chance to walk along there and really see the beautiful vision of this community. And it was so badly damaged back in 2019. And so we've invested $2.5 million in an elevated boardwalk. That's what you do when you're smart. You don't build it back the way it was and say, I hope the water doesn't go over it again this time. You make it elevated. That's what we're going to be doing now. And that'll mitigate future flooding events and also improve access.

We're also refurbishing the docs at the Mary Street boat launch, another $2.5 million investment, helping the main dock, but also just keeping it going. Also, the smaller boat dock, where boaters can launch recreational boats. Both sustained damage. They were battered. The docks were unstable. It hurt the industry, it hurt the tourism, and it also hurt the people that run all the boats and the rentals and the whole ecosystem around boating.

So, we're also going to be reconstructing the main dock at a higher elevation. We're going to do the village dock at Veterans Memorial Monument, another popular destination that's getting a facelift. Almost a million dollars there, $975,000 investment. So, we're going to protect from the extreme waves, because the waves keep coming and coming. I know that when I'm out in my little boats.

We're also, last but not least, investing $250,000 into the Thousand Islands regional dock, right next to the park. It's an important point of entry. We host yachts and tugboats and cruise ships. So, it's really critical and we keep that open and accessible. So, we're continuing to do this.

And one more thing that most people don't even think about or care about until it doesn't work and it's not done right, is dredging, right? You always have to be dredging. You have to stay ahead of this. So we're going to be giving an update on that. We invested $15 million to remove built-up sediment from the bottom of 20 harbors and waterways. And I'm proud to announce that all 20 are done. So, that's been completed as well. And we'll have the final phase as well.

So, I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm delighted to be here. Like I said, find me any reason to come up here and the answer is yes, I'll find a way to get up here. I literally snuck in here over the 4th of July, but none of you knew that, did you? My husband is convinced that I'm a one-person economic development team because I walk and spend my money in your towns. I literally stopped at a store on my way over here and picked up something that didn't fit in the car last time. I'm trying to help the community, right? Somebody has to do it, right?

I love this community. You all love this community. And we'll continue to protect this community from Mother Nature and continue to embrace the majesty, the beauty, the charm of this spectacular part of our state that I, as your Governor, am so proud of.