Medina’s K-9 Kye will retire in the fall
File photo by Cheryl Wertman: Lt. Todd Draper and Kye, the Medina Police Department’s K-9, are pictured in January 2014 when they met children at a local basketball game.
MEDINA – Kye, Medina’s K-9 since 2012, will soon be retiring. Kye is a Belgian Malinois that works each day with his partner/handler Lt. Todd Draper.
The Medina Village Board announced Kye will be retiring and the board agreed to sell the dog to Draper for $1, which is typical when a K-9 retires. The dog then spends the rest of its life with its handler’s family.
Medina already has enough in donations to purchase a new a Belgian Malinois. Police Chief Chad Kenward said a new dog will likely be purchased next month. The department will also announce a new K-9 handler later this week.
The handler and the dog will then be trained together other the summer. The dog should be in serve in September or October. Once the new dog is ready, Kye will be retired, Kenward said.
Kye’s main duties have been tracking, drug detection, building searches and criminal apprehension. Kye and Draper have attended many public events and visited local schools and done demonstrations for the community.
“K-9 Kye has filled out his retirement papers and put his paw print on it,” said Mayor Mike Sidari.
The Village Board at this evening’s meeting also accepted the resignations of two full-time firefighters. Sergio DiCenso and Bob Urtel are both transferring to other fire departments.
Mayor Sidari said the village is in “quite the quandary” with the filling the two positions because a spring Civil Service test was cancelled. Fire Chief Matt Jackson said the department will work on filling the position.
Jackson said the department will be down from 20 full-time firefighters to 16. Medina’s firefighters are also emergency medical technicians or paramedics and run an ambulance service.
