Frustration boils over at Medina board meeting about fire truck, fire hall addition

Aug. 20 meeting focused on Fire Department to be rescheduled

Medina Mayor Marguerite, left, and Village Trustee Debbie Padoleski disagree on which steps are needed for the Medina Fire Department.

MEDINA – Village Trustee Debbie Padoleski aired out her frustrations with the ongoing saga on how the village will house a new ladder truck, due to arrive in December in a fire hall that is too small.

“We’re not all on the same page,” Padoleski said during Monday’s board meeting. “I’m going in different directions and you’re going in different directions and nothing is getting done.”

Mayor Marguerite Sherman said she has been putting in many hours trying to secure more money for the village and keep the projects moving. The board voted last month to pursue a $1 million state grant to help with the costs of an addition. Padoleski opposed it saying the grant still leaves the village to pick up some of the costs.

“We have a fully operational fire department that needs equipment to run,” Sherman said. “Right now we have to move forward and equip our firefighters with what they need.”

The board back on June 26, 2023 voted to accept the bid for $1,698,995 from Pierce Manufacturing in Appleton, Wisc. to build the new fire truck with a 100-foot-long ladder.

That truck would be too big to fit in the existing fire hall. The current truck from 1996 only has a couple inches of clearance in entering and leaving the fire hall. The truck is 10 feet, 4 inches high in a truck bay with 10 feet,, 6 inches of clearance. The new ladder truck will be 13 feet high. A new hall addition is eyed to have clearance up to 14 feet.

The board voted to go ahead because the 2 ½ year wait for the truck to be ready gave them time to get an addition built for the new truck. Village officials expected the addition to have a much shorter turnaround than the fire truck, where manufacturers have lengthy waits.

Medina was planning on a $4.5 million project that would add two bays with a  fire hall addition and also fix many problems in the existing building. But the estimates ended up topping $6 million.

The board scaled it back to just a one-bay addition at just over $1 million.

But Padoleski, who was elected in March 2024, thinks the one-bay addition may be the wrong approach. She has tried to get the board to rescind the fire truck purchase and rethink the entire project.

“This has been mishandled from the very beginning,” Padoleski said. “I’ve been trying to get you out of this mess. You just don’t trust me. You don’t trust my judgement.”

The board was planning an Aug. 20 meeting to go over the project with its engineer and financial consultant, but Padoleski said she wasn’t pushing for more details on the fire truck and addition. She is questioning the overall costs on the village, and making that commitment on new debt for 20 more years. That Aug. 20 meeting will be rescheduled in the near future so the board can try to pinpoint its next steps.

Padoleski is retired as the village clerk/treasurer. She has long expressed the need for more revenue for the village to fund its services so the village residents and businesses aren’t bearing so much of the cost, especially with Medina personnel often going outside the village.

Mayor Sherman said the fire truck is coming and is needed. She is trying to find a spot to house the truck temporarily while the board plots its next steps with an addition at the fire hall.

Photo by Tom Rivers: The Medina ladder truck from 1996 is shown in March 2023 when the fire department had an open house showing the tight quarters at the fire hall, especially for the ladder truck which only has 2 inches of clearance in pulling in and out of the fire hall. A new truck is due to arrive in December.

Padoleski said she has been wrongly branded as opposing the fire department. She said getting more assistance from the nearby towns and county will help ensure its survival with paid staff. She also said the department may need to pare down expenses.

Trustee Jess Marciano said the board members are all working for the best in the community, but the village is facing a difficult challenge in providing services to the community. Those costs are going up but the village doesn’t have more revenues coming in.

“If the surrounding municipalities would contribute more, it wouldn’t be an issue,” she said. “The goal is to maintain the service without breaking the back of the village.”

Shelby, Ridgeway and Yates each give $35,000 towards Medina’s full-time ambulance service.

Padoleski said the Medina firefighters often are going outside of western Orleans with recent calls in Wolcottsville and Lockport.

The mayor noted Orleans County is in the midst of a study on how to best provide EMS and fire protection in the county, looking at the current situation and trying to anticipate the future. She would like to wait and see the recommendations from the study before talking about changes with the Medina Fire Department.

Padoleski said the needs are already known: more revenue for the village if it’s going to continue as a career fire department.

“People appreciate our fire department but they need to put their money where their mouth is,” she said.

Marciano said the village officials need to communicate with the nearby towns and county about the need for more help with funding, especially now that the towns and county are starting their budget process for 2026. The village could use a boost in the local sales tax revenues. The County Legislature hasn’t increased the share to towns and villages since 2001 – 24 years ago.

Padoleski said she fully supports working to get more funding for village services.

“It sounds wonderful,” she said. “I’m all for it.”