OLCOTT, N.Y. — "This business has been here for over 100 years," said Dave Hedley, proprietor of the Hedley Boat Company which was started by his grandfather.
"And outside of the 70's (when Hurricane Agnes blew through the region causing a shoreline flooding ) we've never had anything like this until two years ago and now."
Hedley stood near where his launch ramps, once used for a 30 ton boat hoist, were wiped out in the flooding of 2017.
He fears a recurrence after the United States Army Corps of Engineers reported that Lake Ontario water levels have risen six inches over the last month and are expected to rise another 11 as it continues to get warmer.
In Hedley's hands he clutched a folder, containing a picture of he and Governor Andrew Cuomo taken in Wilson two years ago, and the letter he got from the state a short time later pledging financial assistance, which he says has yet to come.
"I've given up on the $50,000 they promised," he said.
Gov. Cuomo came to Olcott in Niagara County Wednesday pledging more assistance to worried shoreline denizens, and to discuss measures the state plans to take for any flooding which may soon occur.
The governor met with local officials and took a brief boat tour, heading out from the Newfane Marina to get an up-close look at the situation.
"We have a several pronged strategy," said Cuomo.
It involves - among other things - bringing in more sandbags, improving a pumping station to clear floodwaters, additional infrastructure such as shoreline berms, and $500,000 toward a break wall at the mouth of 18 Mile Creek, ...which the state actually has no authority to build, but can provide funding for the study needed to get it built.
"I'm encouraged," said John Syracuse, who represents Olcott in the Niagara County Legislature.
"It's not going to necessarily do anything about the lake level, but it will help with wave action and harden us against those northeasterly winds," Syracuse said,
Lake levels are controlled by the International Joint Commission (IJC), an agency Cuomo continued to lash out at, and to blame for the current situation.
According to Cuomo, the IJC has "failed in its job", while the IJC has maintained that to let additional water flow from the lake will imperil Canadian communities along the St. Lawrence River with flooding.
"I understand all the constraints, but to me they are excuses," Cuomo said.
When asked by WGRZ-TV what he would have the IJC do instead, Cuomo replied, "That's their job. They don't tell me how to do my job, and I don't tell them how to do their job."
Cuomo also promised that the state, like it did two years ago, will ease the permit process for property owners to build what they need on their own for shoreline protection ...although Hedley says in his experience, that's not been easy at all.
"They make you jump through hoops....it's like you need to have a form to fill out a form...and have another form, to fill out that form," he said. "Nobody knows what they're doing.
Cuomo insists the IJC has been "disrespectful" to the concerns of the state. And although he is encouraged that former NYS Assemblywoman Jane Corwin was recently appointed to serve on the IJC board, her appointment has yet to be approved at the federal level.
He also confirmed that representatives of the state will meet with those from from the IJC on Thursday, in an attempt to has out differences and resolve issues.