Trustee Padoleski says Medina taxpayers already bearing too much cost for services, calls for county-wide EMS

Photo by Tom Rivers: Medina firefighter Steve Long urges the Village Board to pursue a grant to help pay for an addition to the fire station. Long is a member of the union representing the Medina firefighters, Medina professional Firefighters IAFF Local 2161.

MEDINA – The Village Board, in a 3-2 vote, moved to seek a Community Development Block Grant for up to $1 million to help pay for an addition to the Medina fire hall.

The village was looking at a $6 million addition project that would have added two bays and also addressed problems in the existing fire hall. But that project was significantly scaled back due to the cost. Medina is now looking at a $1.4 million one-bay addition.

It is needed to accommodate a new ladder truck that should be delivered in December. The addition won’t be ready in time for the new truck.

Mayor Marguerite Sherman said the CDBG grant, if successful at the maximum amount, would cover the majority of the expense for the addition.

Village Trustee Deborah Padoleski opposed pursing the grant saying it wouldn’t cover the entire cost if Medina is successful getting the maximum amount of $1 million. She said village taxpayers would have to pick up the difference and the village taxpayers are already overburdened. Padoleski said a new ladder truck for $1.7 million will be difficult for the taxpayers. She suggested Medina try to sell that new truck to another department.

But Trustee Deborah Padoleski said that $400,000 difference is on top of the $1.7 million for the new truck. She said taxpayers are already overstressed from their village taxes.

Padoleski and Mark Prawel both opposed seeking the grant, while Sherman and trustees Jess Marciano and Scott Bielski voted to apply for the money.

Padoleski said it’s time for a “new vision” for providing police and fire protection in the village. She said she supports both the fire and police departments, but the service needs to be pared down to an affordable level.

“I feel like this is business as usual,” Padoleski said about the grant for the new addition. “I was hoping for a different way of doing business.”

She has favored canceling the order for the fire truck, but now the penalty would be steep – $340,000. She thinks Medina could sell the new truck to other departments looking for one, she said.

“I would like to see a countywide EMS,” she said.

If the service was through the county, Padoleski said it would eliminate a duplication of services and the cost would be shared more fairly in the county. Right now, she said the village bears too much of the expense and its firefighters and trucks often respond to calls outside of the village.

She also said the addition would not look good on the current fire hall, which is in a historic district.

“You’re not going to be happy with it,” she said. “It will look like a band-aid stuck on the building. My gut tells me this isn’t right.”

Mayor Marguerite Sherman said the ladder truck is needed, and the board has a responsibility to give firefighters the tools and equipment they need to do their jobs.

Medina firefighter Steve Long spoke at the meeting on Monday, urging the board to pursue the grant.

“You’re being fiscally responsible,” Long said about pursuing the grant funds. “We support the village going after the grant.”

Debbie Berry, a village resident, said she supports the firefighters and she thanked them for helping her family over the years. But she said taxes in the village are way too high. She suggested trying to get more use out of the old ladder truck, which is 29 years old, and trying to sell the new ladder truck. Other fire departments and districts are looking for one, including Batavia and Albion, she said.

The Medina Fire Department has a new ladder truck due to arrive in December. The truck won’t fit in the existing fire station. Medina village officials are looking at a one-bay addition to accommodate the new truck.

The Village Board received a letter from Justin Niederhofer, the county’s fire coordinator and emergency management director. He urged the board to pursue the grant.

“It is well known that the current fire station infrastructure lacks the space necessary to properly house the essential apparatus,” he wrote in a letter on July 14. “Without a suitable facility the longevity, readiness, and rapid deployment of this vital resource would be compromised.”

The Medina Fire Department with paid firefighters available 24-7 are critical not only to the village, but other towns in the county who rely on Medina for mutual aid, Niederhofer said.

“Their career staff provides immediate, around-the-clock response for fire, EMS, and rescue calls, including critical operations such as structure fires and technical rescues where a ladder truck is indispensable,” Niederhofer wrote. “Countywide fire operations are very reliant on mutual aid to ensure safe and efficient fire ground operations. The department’s mutual aid tole makes this project a countywide benefit, not just a village improvement.”

Medina Triennial will feature 50 artists at 12 venues

Photo by Hakan Topal/Courtesy Medina Triennial – This aerial view shows the Erie Canal, Oak Orchard Creek and downtown Medina near the Glenwood Avenue bridge.

Press Release, Medina Triennial

MEDINA – The Medina Triennial, a new contemporary art triennial in Western New York, launches its inaugural edition in 2026.

The free, village-wide triennial will feature more than 50 works including site-responsive commissions by local, national and international artists presented at approximately 12 venues in Medina.

MEDINA – The Medina Triennial, a new contemporary art triennial centered in Medina along the Erie Canal, is pleased to announce its inaugural edition, taking place from June 6 to Sept. 7, 2026.

The Triennial aims to become a cultural touchstone for Western New York, offering a dynamic platform for supporting and advancing the contemporary arts landscape in the region and drawing an expected 50,000 visitors every three years.

Initiated by the New York Power Authority and the New York State Canal Corporation as part of a broader effort to revitalize the canal and highlight its contemporary significance, the ambitious Triennial will feature new commissions by local, national and international artists and collectives, to create a free, village-wide exhibition.

Grounded in place and shaped through deep community engagement, the Triennial will merge the hyper-local with global ideas, establishing a new model for site-specificity in the United States.

Visitors will experience art across approximately 12 indoor and outdoor sites highlighting Medina’s dynamic natural environment and industrial history. These sites range from post-industrial buildings, vibrant public spaces, and key locations along the iconic Erie Canal, with a central hub located in a former sandstone hotel building.

The resulting Triennial will be locally embedded and relevant to broader conversations of contemporary art. Commissioned artists will be invited to respond to Western

New York’s communities and ecosystems, often working in collaboration with local residents to create work rooted in context.

Opening in September of 2025, the Medina Triennial Hub will host public programs and events realized in collaboration with art institutions across Western New York. Upon its opening, the Hub will host programming centering on themes of community, ecology, and place, which will act as a formal launch for the Triennial’s public engagement ahead of its opening in 2026.

The Medina Triennial will be organized by Co-Artistic Directors Kari Conte and Karin Laansoo, esteemed curators and institutional leaders who bring their decades-long careers in the arts toward realizing this exciting new initiative. Buffalo-based curator Ekrem Serdar joins the Triennial’s curatorial team as Associate Curator. The curators come to the Medina Triennial with an appreciation and respect for Western New York.

In addition to her work in Medina, Conte is an independent curator and writer based in New York City and Türkiye, who holds roles with the International Studio & Curatorial Program, City as Living Laboratory, and Kai Art Center.

Laansoo is Founding Director of the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center (ECADC) and Artistic Director of Kai Art Center in Tallinn, Estonia, one of the preeminent contemporary art institutions in the Baltic States. Laansoo also splits her time between Tallinn and Rochester, New York, giving her a personal connection to Western New York.

“The Medina Triennial will converge transformative artistic positions within a village marked by history and possibility,” Conte said. “It will offer an inclusive space where global perspectives and local sensibilities meet, with numerous works that are grounded in Medina with far-reaching perspectives. We are honored to collaborate with the communities of Western New York to realize the artist’s ideas and we are looking forward to the Triennial Hub opening this fall and to the Triennial next summer.”

“Western New York is a location of personal significance to me, as it’s a place I’ve called my home for a number of years,” Laansoo said. “Medina is a hidden gem in this region in many ways. A triennial of this scope has never been organized in the US in a community of this size, making this an unprecedented opportunity. It’s an exciting chance for us to build new regional cultural infrastructures, give local ideas global resonance, and position Medina as an emerging destination for the arts.”

The Triennial was launched to create lasting cultural and economic impact across Western New York. To shape this vision, the Power Authority and Canal Corporation team worked over two years in collaboration with key partners in Rochester, Buffalo, Medina, the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), local arts organizations, and community patrons. Recognizing the unique opportunity to expand access to contemporary art beyond major urban centers, they developed a comprehensive framework and project brief focused on broad participation and nurturing of regional artistic communities.

The curatorial project and team were selected by a Steering Committee to bring this vision to life with creativity, ambition and a deep commitment to community engagement. The triennial team works in dialogue with the Steering Committee, which includes leadership from the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, the Burchfield Penney Art Center, the Corning Museum of Glass, Memorial Art Gallery, and the University at Buffalo.

“At the New York Power Authority, we are proud to invest in initiatives like the Medina Triennial that aim to revitalize the power of our waterways and infrastructure as catalysts for creativity, economic growth, and community vitality,” said New York Power Authority President and CEO Justin E. Driscoll. “We are committed to launching this first edition and are confident it will set the foundation for an arts initiative that will remain relevant, compelling and transformative for generations to come.”

“As we commemorate the Erie Canal Bicentennial this year, our team has been deeply engaged in strategizing new ways to invest in more canal-side communities,” said New York State Canal Corporation Director Brian U. Stratton. “The Medina Triennial project represents an extraordinary opportunity for cultural enrichment, and we are proud to support the creative vision of the curatorial team in their vision at this transformative moment.”

For more information on the Triennial and to sign up for the official newsletter, please visit medinatriennial.org.

Photos by Ginny Kropf: Jose Corte of Long Island, left, and Yang Chen of Queens pose with their bikes in front of their tent, set up for the night at the Clifford Wise Intermediate School.

MEDINA – More than 600 bikers and 106 support staff are spending the night camped on the grounds of Wise Junior/Senior High School on the Cycle the Erie Canal ride from Buffalo to Albany.

This is the 27th year for the ride, which left Buffalo Sunday morning and will end in eight days in Albany. The ride also celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal.

The 400-mile trek over eight days is organized by Parks & Trails New York. This year there are cyclists from 37 states between the ages of 8 and 84. The tour this year also celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal.

Tents are set up all around Wise Intermediate School, including these in front of the school. Setting up their tent, in green shirts, are Kathy and Eric Medlin of Jamestown, N.C., first-time riders on Cycle the Erie Canal.

Medina has annually been a designated overnight stop for the bikers, who come from all parts of the country. They are headed 62 miles east on Monday to Fairport.

Some, like Michael Burke of Edenton, N.C. have completed the ride multiple times, while others, like Christy Greening of Mickleton, N.J. are participating for the first time.

Burke grew up in Binghamton, and has biked in this ride more than 20 times. He loves the overnight in Medina, and looks forward every year to the band Pocket Change. Dinner is always wonderful, he said.

Christy Greening of Mickleton, N.J. arranges her tent for the night during the stop in Medina on the Cycling the Erie Canal ride.

Greening learned about the ride last year from a man she met on the CNO Canal ride from Maryland to Washington, D.C. He told her he does that ride one year and the Erie Canal the next. Greening is riding alone and said she has met a lot of solo riders.

“Next year, we joked us solo riders should all get Solo cups to identify us,” Greening said. “We consider this ‘summer camp for adults.’”

The Medina Tourism Committee, chaired by Jim Hancock, helps to welcome the cyclists for their stay in Medina. Hancock and wife Barb, Barb Gorham and Jan Smith, and Dawn Borchet and Isabella Zasa from Orleans County Tourism answered questions and provided information at the information tent.

Michael Burke of Edenton, N.C. registers as Orleans County tourism director Dawn Borchet watches in the tourism booth set up on the grounds of Wise Intermediate School.

Zambistro’s was hired by Parks and Trails New York to provide Sunday night supper and breakfast before the bikers started on their way Monday morning.

Hancock praised the support from the Medina school district, which made everything possible.

“Without the wonderful cooperation of the schools Grounds Superintendent Kevin and his assistant Cindy, we couldn’t do this,” Hancock said.

At 4 p.m., Orleans Hub editor Tom Rivers gave a presentation on Medina sandstone and interesting sites to see in Orleans County.

He showed pictures of many sandstone buildings, including the First Presbyterian Church of Albion, the tallest building in Orleans County at 175 feet; the Pullman Memorial Universalist Church with at least 41 Tiffany windows; the Medina Armory, now a YMCA; three churches in Medina made of sandstone and other sites in Orleans County and beyond.

He said sandstone is not just a local thing, with many churches and mansions in Buffalo, and sandstone in the steps of the Capitol in Albany and part of Albany City Hall. Medina Sandstone is prominent in many canal communities, near and far, and could be readily shipped from the quarries in Orleans County.

(Left) Jim Hancock, left, chair of Orleans County Tourism Committee, chats with Dylan Carey, director of Policy and Planning for Parks and Trails New York. (Right) Orleans Hub editor Tom Rivers gave a presentation in Wise school auditorium on Medina Sandstone and attractions in Orleans County. Here, he holds a picture of the historic Presbyterian Church in Albion.

Rivers explained there were about 50 quarries in Orleans County during its peak between 1890 and 1910, with quarrymen coming from Britain, Italy, Ireland and Poland. Two quarrymen, who went home one winter to the Isle of Guernsey, came back and were lost when the Titanic went down April 14, 1912. There is a monument for those two – William Doughton and Peter MacKain – at Hillside Cemetery in Holley/Clarendon.

Rivers described Albion’s historic Courthouse Square, and the 1822 lighthouse in Charlotte, the oldest known sandstone structure, which is still standing strong. Rivers also described the Soldiers and Sailors monument in Mount Albion Cemetery and the Medina Sandstone used in Hamlin Beach State Park by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Rivers told bikers about Albion being home to the world’s first Santa Claus School and the first Free Methodist Church in the world, and explained the Cobblestone Museum was a short ride north of Albion.

Leaving Medina, the bikers were advised to look for the canal culvert, the only place in the world where a road goes under a canal. Rivers also said someone had discovered markings in the stones, some with initials and others with crosses.

He also said in 1825 the canal was four feet deep and 40 feet wide. Now it’s 12 to 14 feet deep and about 120 feet wide.

“It really was a ditch,” he said. “In Holley, the bend was too sharp and had to be straightened out.”

Of 16 lift bridges on the Erie Canal, seven are in Orleans County.

It is the hope of tourism professionals in the county that the bikers’ interests will be peaked and they will make a return visit.

Such is the case with biker John Zawistowski of Jamestown, Pa.

“This is my first time here,” he said. “I heard about the Railroad Museum and the sandstone, and I’m going to come back.”

A sea of tents is spread out on the lawn at Wise Intermediate School in Medina, where more than 600 bikers are spending the night on the Cycle the Erie Canal ride.