Polish culture celebrated on Dyngus Day

Photos by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – Polish culture was celebrated on Monday with Dyngus Day parties throughout Western New York, including one at the Sacred Heart Club in Medina. In the top photo, Lyndsay Oliver-Farewell of Medina and her daughter Kendall wait for their turn to eat at the celebration.

Lyndsay has been coming to the annual Dyngus Day party for about 20 years.

Mike Hartway gets pierogis ready for the crowd of nearly 200 people, the biggest turnout in years for Dyngus Day. The Sacred Heart Club served up lots of Polish food.

Kathy Hartway checks on sweet and sour cabbage, left, and “Poor Man’s Pierogis.” About a dozen people did prep work on Saturday for the big meal, with eight people devoted in the kitchen on Monday.

Stuffed cabbage was a hit with the crowd on Monday.

Carrie Smith of Waterport holds pussywillows, which are popular on Dyngus Day as an early budding plant. In Dyngus Day tradition, boys would chase girls and flirt with them by touching their legs with twigs or pussywillows.

Lorraine Bukiewicz was crowned as queen for Dyngus Day. She is pictured with children, from left: Mike Bukiewicz, Barb Bukiewicz, John Bukiewicz and Ellen Goheen.

Lorraine met her husband, Leo, at the jukebox at the Sacred Heart Club in the early 1940s. The couple raised 10 children at a home three houses from the Sacred Heart Club.

“It was a nice surpirse,” Lorraine, 91, said about being crowned queen.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Medina Mayor Andrew Meier smiles during Monday’s Village Board meeting, his last meeting as mayor. Michael Sidari starts as new mayor on Friday.

MEDINA – Andrew Meier was praised for his efforts in leading the Village of Medina government the past 4 ½ years on Monday, his last meeting as Medina mayor before Michael Sidari takes over on Friday.

Meier, a local attorney and business owner, opted not to seek re-election last month. He was sometimes at odds with board members, particularly with a push to dissolve village government. Village residents rejected dissolution on Jan. 20, 2015 with a 949 to 527 vote, one of the biggest turnouts at village polls in recent memory.

“Our relationship was sometimes a bit rocky but I admire the way he has dedicated himself and worked for the village, and kept us on the straight and narrow,” said Owen Toale, a village trustee.

Meier, 36, has worked to renovate the R.H. Newell Company building on West Center Street, a building that is now home to a cafe, meadery, law offices, a boutique hotel and outdoor performance venue.

“Medina is a place that people want to visit and a lot of that is due to you,” Trustee Marguerite Sherman told Meier.

Sherman and Sidari were both elected as write-in trustees about two years ago. Both wanted to keep the village government intact. Meier saw village dissolution as a way to reduce taxes and streamline services.

“There’s always been respect,” Sherman said. “We haven’t agreed on everything but we worked together as a team. Your heart is with our community and maintaining the historic aspect of our village.”

Sidari and Trustee Todd Bensley also said Meier has been dedicated to the village, and welcomed other board members feedback.

“I always appreciate what Andrew’s done for the community,” Bensley said. “I never questioned that he wanted what was best for the village.”

Meier said he will stay involved in the community.

“We’ve accomplished a great deal,” Meier told the board members on Monday. “We don’t get down to pettiness.”

The village is experiencing a rebirth of its business district, while also targeting vacant houses and buildings. It tackled a solar energy project at the sewer plant, and is working with the Genesee County Economic Development Corporation to run sewer lines to the STAMP site in the Town of Alabama.

Medina also is home to the new Pride Pak vegetable processing plant under construction on Route 31.

Meier said the village is in good hands with Sidari, the Village Board and the village department heads.

He credited many of the recent improvements in Medina to dedicated residents, business owners and village employees – “to all of you we owe our success as a community,” he said.

Photo by Tom Rivers – The Company F Memorial Committee has this sign out at Rotary Park in Medina, trying to build support for a $90,000 campaign for a bronze statue and other improvements to the memorial at the former Armory in Medina, now the Orleans County YMCA on Pearl Street.

Rendering courtesy of Company F Memorial Committee – A fund-raising effort has started for a bronze statue of a soldier on top of an existing stone monument by the Orleans County YMCA.

Courtesy Medina Sandstone Society – Company F prepares to leave Medina Oct. 24, 1940 for training at Fort McClellan and active duty in WWII.

MEDINA – A group working on raising funds for a bronze statue of a soldier at the former Armory in Medina has reached $20,000 of a $90,000 goal.

The Company F Memorial Committee will accept bids until Friday for the project. A 7-foot-high statue of a soldier will go on top of an existing stone base that is 6 feet, 10 inches in height.

In October 2008, the stone monument was dedicated with plaques listing soldiers who trained at the Medina Armory and fought wars on behalf of the United States. The new fund-raising campaign includes repair two of the panels that were damaged due to vandalism, and making some name corrections and additions, said Bill Menz, the committee chairman. A new 30-foot-high flag pole will also be included.

The Committee has sent out 300 letters to community members, and placed brochures throughout the county. Donations are coming in, including recent checks for $1,000 from the Knights of Columbus Council 651 in Medina (in memory of Michael Mazur) and $1,100 from the Sons of the American Legion Squadron 204 in Medina.

Menz and the committee want to recognize the sacrifice of local soldiers and their families. The Medina Armory opened in 1901 for Company F, which formed in 1891. It trained at a different location prior to the Armory. In 1977, the National Guard left the Medina Armory, a site on Pearl Street. The site has been used as a YMCA for more than three decades.

Menz was one of the soldiers to train in the Armory. That was for 18 months when he was in the National Guard in the 1950s. He served on active duty in Greenland. He attained the rank of a corporal E-4.

The monument currently includes 550 names of local soldiers who fought in wars on behalf of the United States. The soldiers enlisted and trained at the Medina Armory for conflicts from 1898 to 1945 including the Spanish-American War, Mexican-American, World War I and World War II.

In 2006, a group of Medina veterans, their family members and representatives from the Medina Sandstone Society embarked on a project to provide a permanent tribute to the 550 soldiers from Orleans County and the surrounding area who joined Company F.

After two years of planning, fund-raising and building the monument, it was dedicated on Oct. 14, 2008.

Any donations for the statue can be mailed to Company F Monument, P.O. Box 522, Medina NY, 14103. For more information on the latest efforts to improve the memorial, click here.

Tom Lupo will stay as Lockport’s assistant chief

Photos by Tom Rivers – Tom Lupo, the newly named fire chief for the Medina Fire Department, thanks the Village Board for the opportunity to lead the Medina department.

MEDINA – The Village Board, in a unanimous vote, named the new chief for the Medina Fire Department on Monday evening.

Tom Lupo is currently the assistant fire chief for the Lockport Fire Department. He will continue in that role and work part-time for up to 30 hours each week for Medina at $30 an hour.

Mayor Andrew Meier said Lupo’s hiring is an “outside the box” move, a “hybrid” shared services with Lockport. The village doesn’t have an official agreement with the City of Lockport. Lupo will work full-time for that city, and then on his off hours be committed to Medina.

Lupo praised the Medina Fire Department on Monday calling the group an “exceptional department.”

Medina handles about 3,000 calls a year and is the primary ambulance provider for western Orleans County. Lockport’s Fire Department also was the primary ambulance provider for its city until Sept. 14, when 12 firefighters were laid off in a budget cutting move. Twin Cities Ambulance now has the ambulance contract.

Lupo is a paramedic and he said he will be on ambulance and fire calls for Medina. Many of the Medina firefighters attended Monday’s Village Board and applauded when the board announced Lupo’s appointment.

He succeeds Todd Zinkievich, who had his last day in the department on July 3 and officially retired in September after using vacation time.

Josh Wolck was promoted on Monday to a captain in the Medina Fire Department.

The board also filled a vacant captain’s position on Monday, naming Josh Wolck, a Medina firefighter the past 7 years, to the post. He fills a vacancy created when Mike Maak retired Jan. 21 after 27 ½ years with Medina.

Wolck thanked the board for the opportunity. He was praised as a hard-working member of the department who earned the promotion.

Board members also thanked Jonathan Higgins, the other captain, for the leading the department in recent months. The department doesn’t have an assistant chief or lieutenant so captain is the second-highest leadership position.

The board also filled the vacant firefighter position created with Wolck’s promotion by naming Ferdinando Papalia as a full-time firefighter.

In addition, Lawrence Stanton, Christopher Seefeldt, Thomas Rushing, Matt Natale and Robert Conley were accepted as callmen, boosting those ranks to 24.

Marguerite Sherman, a Village Board member, said the callmen influx is a sign that firefighters want to be part of the Fire Department. She commended the department’s leadership for creating an environment where people want to serve the community.

Provided photo – Orchard Manor recently switched to electronic prescribing. This group includes, from left: Dave Denny, administrator; Brittany Sloan, quality assurance nurse; Dr. Das, medical director; Heidi Smith, director of nursing; and Katy Owczarczak, assistant director of nursing.

MEDINA – Orchard Manor Rehabilitation and Nursing Center has gone live with electronic prescribing.

Brittany Sloan, the facility lead and project manager, was tasked with integrating physicians and nurses to a new branch of the facilities’ current electronic medical records, Point Click Care.

Since February, Sloan has spent hours preparing both staff and the computer database for the integration. Orchard Manor made the transition on March 16, joining only one other facility in New York State to prescribe electronically following the 2013 declaration mandating electronic prescriptions by March 27, 2016.

Howard Zucker MD, NYS Commissioner of Health, extended a waiver statewide, extending the integration of electronic prescriptions deadline to March 26, 2017.

The state is requiring, as of March 27, all prescriptions written in New York State to be transmitted electronically from the prescriber directly to the pharmacy.

This requirement is a key component of New York’s I-STOP initiative that is focused on helping curb the abuse of prescription medication throughout the state, the Governor’s Office said.

“This reform will improve patient safety, reduce the number of fraudulent or stolen prescriptions, and help combat prescription drug abuse across New York,” Governor Cuomo said. “Addiction can affect anyone from any walk of life and this administration will continue to use every tool it can to combat this epidemic and provide help to those in need.”

MEDINA – About 165 school-aged youth and parents had an opportunity to participate in a fun family event during the school break.

The event was possible through a collaboration with Orleans United Drug Free Communities Coalition, the Orleans YMCA, 4-H Senior Council, and Medina Area Association of Churches.

“We tried something a little different and asked skaters to donate non-perishable food items for the two Medina food pantries,” said Pat Crowley, project director for Orleans United DFC Coalition.

Donations were appreciated but not required to skate.

Hannah Heil and Olivia Carter display the 140 cans collected. “We felt it was a great way to give back to the community” said Crowley, pictured in middle.

Robert Batt (right), 4-H Youth Development Educator, and Aeddon Cayea, 4-H Senior Council member, brought educational information with a treasure chest full of prizes youth could win when they visited their table.

Christian Moss and Kaity Howe from Medina both attended the Free Family Roller Skating held on March 23 at the Orleans YMCA and won the iPod shuffles.