With the St. Lawrence River in their backyard, businesses in downtown Clayton have become familiar with the high waters. 

“I wish there was miracle to solve but there’s nothing we can do,” said Attilio’s pizza restaurant owner Cynthia Beatttie.

Within the past few weeks, she has seen several inches of water flooding her basement as the river and nearby Lake Ontario waters continue to rise.  

“We have to put our stuff either in a food truck or buy extra freezers to bring it up out of the basements, so it’s kind of a hardship,” Beatttie said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday put forward a plan to help business owners like Beattie. The Lake Ontario Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative (REDI) aims to provide funding to local communities along Lake Ontario and the Niagara and St. Lawrence rivers.

“You can’t fund this on your own money. You have to have support from the state and federal government,” said Clayton Mayor Norma Zimmer.

The goal is to create new flood resilient shoreline infrastructure that can take on the high water levels. Local officials have already made plans to use funding in order to tackle the flooding issue. 

“We probably will start right here at the river walk,” Zimmer said. “There’s talk about how it could be built up higher. It was, was considered at one time, but it was cost prohibited.” 

She also hopes the new initiative will bring more money to waterfront businesses.