‘It will be turning Medina into an even bigger cultural destination than it already is.’

Photos by Tom Rivers: The former NAPAA Auto Parts building on Main Street in Medina will be headquarters for the Medina Triennial art initiative that starts this fall with next year the focus of the program, which is expected to feature 50 artists at about a dozen sites in Medina.

MEDINA – The Medina Triennial, a big art initiative planned for 2026, is expected to bring 50,000 visitors to the community next summer when the project features about 35 artists at 12 different locations in Medina.

Organizers met with the Medina Village Board on Monday, updating the board on plans for the initiative.

The former NAPA Auto Parts building at 345 North Main St. will serve as the base for the Medina Triennial, a festival of contemporary art. That building will host many art events on the first floor and is planning to open for its first event this September.

It is the first of the 12 sites to be announced that will display art for the Triennial. The sites will be both indoors and outdoors in Medina.

The former NAPA site will serve as office and “hub” for the Triennial, Village Board members were told by Kari Conte, co-artistic director for the Triennial. The University at Buffalo Department of Architecture is designing the Triennial office.

Conte is an independent curator and writer based in New York City. She is co-artistic director for the Triennial with Karin Laansoo, founding director of the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center and artistic director of Kai Art Center in Tallinn, Estonia. Laansoo splits her time between Tallinn and Rochester, New York.

The Triennial was initiated by the New York Power Authority and the New York State Canal Corporation as part of a broader effort to revitalize the canal. The goal is to do the event every three years.

Federico Rosario, left, is the community engagement & programs coordinator for the Medina Triennial. Ekrem Serdar is associate curator for the arts initiative that will feature about 50 artists next year in Medina.

Conte, speaking with the board by speaker phone, said sponsors are welcome to be part of the effort that is expected to draw people to Medina from around the state and country, with some international visitors as well.

“It will be turning Medina into an even bigger cultural destination than it already is,” Conte said.

The Triennial’s steering committee includes leadership from the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Rochester Institute of Technology, Burchfield Penney Art Center, the Corning Museum of Glass and the University at Buffalo.

“This will be the first site specific project of this kind in the region,” Conte said. “We’re really excited and honored to bring this to Medina.”

Medina offers a “dynamic natural environment and industrial history.” Artists will create pieces that respond to Western New York’s communities and ecosystems.

Some of the artists will be visiting Medina in August and they prepare for their works. The project will feature local, national and international artists.

Two of the staff for the Triennial met in person with the Village Board on Monday. Federico Rosario, a Medina graduate, is the community engagement & programs coordinator for the Medina Triennial. Ekrem Serdar is associate curator for the arts initiative.

Brian Stratton, canal commissioner, issued this statement about the Triennial: “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. 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 on the Triennial, click here.

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.

Photo by Tom Rivers: Mark Ferrara shares about his book chronicling the Erie Canal during a presentation Saturday at Author’s Note in Medina.

MEDINA – An English professor at the State University of Oneonta has written a book about the Erie Canal, focusing on the American communities along its banks and the ordinary people who lived, worked and died there.

Mark Ferrara visited Author’s Note Book Store on Saturday afternoon to sign copies and read from his book, The Raging Erie: Life and Labor Along the Erie Canal.

Photo by Ginny Kropf: Mark Ferrara signs copies of his latest book, “The Raging Erie: Life and Labor Along the Erie Canal,” at Author’s Note Book Store on Saturday afternoon.

Ferrara grew up in the Richmond, Va. area, which he considers an “American community.” He also realized there were many American communities along the canal, including Utica and Syracuse where his parents grew up.

Realizing the canal’s bicentennial was coming up, Ferrara began reading everything he could about poor and working class who were forgotten whenever the canal was celebrated. His book took four years to complete – two years of research and then two more to put it all together and get it published.

Ferrara chronicles the fates of the Native Americans whose land was appropriated for the canal, the European immigrants who bored its route through the wilderness and the orphan children who drove the draft animals that pulled boats around the clock.

The author also shows how the canal served as a conduit for the movement of new ideas and religions, a corridor for enslaved people seeking freedom via the Underground Railroad and a spur for social reform movements that emerged in response to the poverty and suffering along its path.

The Raging Erie explores the social dislocation and untold hardships at the heart of a major engineering feat, shedding light on the lives of the canallers who toiled on behalf of American expansion.

Ferrara is also the author of seven books, two of which are American Community: Radical Experiments in Intentional Living and Living the Food Allergic Life. He has taught for universities in South Korea, China and on a Fulbright scholarship in Turkey.

This is the author’s first visit to Medina, and he planned to spend some time exploring the village before heading home.

The Raging Erie is available at Author’s Note, 519 Main St., or online at authorsnote.com. Signed copies can also be ordered for pickup or free shipping at the store’s website.

Photos by Ginny Kropf: Approximately 30 people showed up at Boxwood Cemetery on Saturday morning to learn about cleaning headstones.

MEDINA – Cleaning headstones is an ongoing task, as Friends of Boxwood Cemetery learned this morning.

Todd Bensley, a member of Friends of Boxwood Cemetery and Village of Medina historian, led a seminar for approximately 30 people, in which he demonstrated the proper technique and materials to clean a headstone.

The first headstone cleaning event took place in 2022, after a professional came and demonstrated how it should be done, Bensley said.

“I’ve been leading a seminar annually since then,” he said.

He explained why it is important to clean headstones, especially old ones.

“When lichens accumulate on the headstones, it eats away on the stone,” Bensley said. “Cleaning them preserves their history. For some people, their gravestone is the only way we know they existed. If the lettering is illegible, we have no way of knowing who they are. As village historian I wrote several books on Boxwood Cemetery. I tried to find information on some of the burials by going through archives, but the information on their gravestone was all I could find. If there is growth on them, it will eventually eat them away.”

Bensley’s wife Nicole this morning checked in participants, including several new members who signed up for Friends of Boxwood Cemetery. Copies of Todd’s book on Boxwood Cemetery were also available for sale.

Bensley explained there are 5,000 burials in Boxwood Cemetery, and even with two burials in a plot, that still adds up to a lot of headstones. He said it typically takes 20 to 30 minutes to clean the average headstone. He demonstrated the equipment needed, which included a pad to kneel on, plastic scraper, a pail, D-2 cleaner and a popsicle stick or skewer.

He also advised rubbing one’s hand over a headstone to see if it feels sandy. If so, cleaning should not aggressive. He recommended spraying on D-2, which has been diluted 50% with water, and letting it stand for 10 minutes before attempting to scrape it off.

“Use a scrub brush which you would use on your car,” he said. “If it is too harsh for your car, it is too harsh for a headstone.”

Bensley said a headstone won’t look like new after it has been cleaned, but it will look a lot better than it did.

Nicole Bensley checks in visitors who came for Todd Bensley’s presentation Saturday morning on cleaning headstones at Boxwood Cemetery.

One of the attendees was Anna Buckner, who said she spends nearly every day at the cemetery, walking her two dogs. She said she loves the cemetery and intends to join Friends of Boxwood Cemetery.

Barbara Sidher of Medina said she has attended the events put on by the Friends of Boxwood Cemetery, and came to Saturday’s seminar to learn how to clean her parents’ gravestone in Sacred Heart Cemetery.

Bensley said they are always looking for new members and volunteers. Anyone interested may contact them on their Facebook page.

Todd Bensley explains the correct technique for cleaning headstones to approximately 30 people who attended a seminar at Boxwood Cemetery Saturday morning. He holds a bottle of D-2, the proper cleaner to use on headstones. Anyone who signed up to become a member of Friends of Boxwood Cemetery received a free bottle.

File photos by Ginny Kropf: Here is a sampling of some of the creative zucchini race cars youth made at the Canal Village Farmer’s Market  last summer. The event returns the next two Saturdays.

MEDINA – With the Canal Village Farmers’ Market now open at its original home at West Center Street and West Avenue, market manager Gail Miller has announced the return of the popular zucchini races for the next three Saturdays.

On July 19, 26 and Aug. 2 the races will begin at 10 a.m. and last until 1:20 p.m. The races included categories for children and adults.

Inspired by a story from the Farmers’ Market Federation of New York, Miller hatched the creative idea last year.

“We really didn’t know what to expect last year, but we had more fun than we imagined,” Miller said. “This year, we’ve made some improvements, including a better track. We’re really looking forward to it.”

Last year, 15 youth participated in the event. Components of the races, including zucchini, are provided by the market.

(Left) Dave Miller gives two zucchini race cars a trial run to check out the track he built, before the competition starts at Medina’s Canal Village Farmer’s Market last year. (Right) Bishop Stanton, 9, checks out a zucchini race car last summer before beginning to build his own.

Children and adults who register for the races will each have access to all sorts of stickers, flags and fun stuff with which to decorate their racers, Miller said.

“Both kids and parents had a lot of fun creating their customized racers and sending them down the track,” she said. “Since the parents and by-standers all had so much fun, the market is encouraging the ‘young at heart’ to compete also. How about challenging your friends, neighbors or your siblings to compete for a zucchini race throwdown. And, of course, we’ll again have the Outlaw Class, which is great fun.”

Certificates and prize vouchers from Confection Connection and NOLA Snowballs will be awarded for the fastest, weirdest, coolest and best crash.

Racing classes will be:

• Sprout – under 8.
• Tenderfoot – 8 – 16.
• Young-at-Heart – 16+
• Outlaw Class – Open to all ages and any vegetable. Entrants can use their imagination to create a racing vegetable, keeping to the vehicle specs in the rules.

Participants can get additional information and register at the market in age-group categories, starting today (Saturday) at the manager’s tent.

Press Release, Author’s Note

Provided photo: Mark Ferrara will be at Author’s Note at 4 p.m. on Saturday to discuss his new book, The Raging Erie: Life and Labor Along the Erie Canal.

MEDINA –  On Saturday, July 12th at 4 p.m., Mark Ferrara, professor of English at the State University of New York, will visit Author’s Note in Medina to discuss and sign his book, The Raging Erie: Life and Labor Along the Erie Canal.

In this groundbreaking book, Ferrara tells the stories of the ordinary people who lived, worked, and died along the banks of the canal, emphasizing the forgotten role of the poor and working class in its construction. He chronicles the fates of the Native Americans whose land was appropriated for the canal, the European immigrants who bored its route through the wilderness, and the orphan children who drove draft animals that pulled boats around the clock.

Ferrara shows how the canal served as a conduit for the movement of new ideas and religions, a corridor for enslaved people seeking freedom via the Underground Railroad, and a spur for social reform movements that emerged in response to the poverty and suffering along its path.

Brimming with vivid characters drawn from the underbelly of antebellum life, The Raging Erie explores the social dislocation and untold hardships at the heart of a major engineering feat, shedding light on the lives of the canallers who toiled on behalf of American expansion.

Currently a professor at SUNY Oneonta, Mark Ferrara is the author of two previous books, American Community: Radical Experiments in Intentional Living (2020) and Living the Food Allergic Life (2023).

Ferrara will sign copies of his book and answer questions during his visit to the bookstore on July 12. Copies of The Raging Erie are available at Author’s Note, 519 Main Street, Medina or online at authorsnote.com/Events.

For those unable to attend, signed books can be ordered for pickup or free shipping at the store’s website. Contact Author’s Note for more information at (585) 798-3642.

Photos from Friends of Boxwood Cemetery: These photos show the before and after of the Rastrick headstone after a cleaning.

Press Release, Friends of Boxwood Cemetery

MEDINA – The Friends of Boxwood Cemetery will be conducting a Headstone Cleaning Seminar at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 12, at Boxwood Cemetery on North Gravel Road in Medina.

Participants are asked to park at the back of the cemetery. A sign-in table will be set up near the location of the seminar.

“This event is always well-attended,” according to Robby Klino, the president of the Friends of Boxwood Cemetery. “People will enjoy hearing a bit of the history of Boxwood Cemetery as well.”

Todd Bensley, who will be leading the seminar, said, “We hope that participants will use the information to properly clean the headstones of family members, whether they are in Boxwood or another cemetery.”

Those interested may simply observe the seminar, or be active participants in cleaning headstones. If you plan to observe you can bring a lawn chair. The demonstration should last about thirty minutes.

If you are going to actively participate, tools and safety equipment will be provided.

There is no fee for the seminar, but donations are always gratefully accepted.

Members who attend the event, and those signing up to be members of the Friends of Boxwood Cemetery on that day, will receive a spray bottle of the proper cleaner used in the seminar. Individual memberships are $25.

Photo by Ginny Kropf: Cassandra Harden of Medina reads a train story to young children in a new event every Saturday at Medina Railroad Museum.

MEDINA – Medina Railroad Museum is starting off the summer with a new event coordinator and a series of new events.

Renee Hemby, who joined the Museum earlier this spring, has developed several ideas to bring more people to the world-class train museum.

First is Reading at the Rails, an opportunity for young children up to the age of 8 to come and learn about trains from picture story books, read by Cassandra Harden of Medina. Any age, however, is welcome to come, Hemby said. Sessions start at 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays and are free. Youth who attend three sessions will receive a souvenir badge. Anyone who joins the museum will also receive a souvenir badge.

The next feature, a historic speaker series, was suggested by museum volunteer and history buff Erica Wanecski. She will be the first speaker on July 9, talking about steel plants and how they related to the railroad.

On July 16, Medina native and news writer Ginny Kropf will share the history of the railroad museum and its founding by the late Martin Phelps.

On Aug. 6, the Cobblestone Society will discuss “Written in Stone.”

Speaker for Aug. 20 will be Craig Lacy, former owner of a sandstone building on North Main, which houses a jail in the basement, where the late Grover Cleveland was held when arrested during a visit to Medina. Lacy, who is also past president of the Medina Historical Society,  will also discuss other facts of historic interest in Medina.

On Sept. 3 the discussion will focus on Bill Lattin’s book, “Architecture Destroyed.”

On Sept. 17, Ryan Duffy from the Holland Land Office in Batavia will talk about the life of Dean Richmond.

Sessions will start at 6 p.m. each week and light refreshments will be provided. There is no charge, but donations to the museum are always appreciated.

“We are trying to bring more people to the museum,” Hemby said.

She remembers going to the late Beverly Mitchell’s house in Albion and listening to all her stories about the past.

“Hearing about history is cool,” Hemby said.

Provided photo: Medina firefighters Adam Fisher, left, and Paul Urquhart are pictured by a Medina ambulance. The two delivered twins early this morning while in an ambulance was headed to the United Memorial Medical Center in Batavia.

MEDINA – Two Medina firefighters – Adam Fisher and Paul Urquhart – delivered twins very early this morning while the ambulance was headed to United Memorial Medical Center in Batavia.

The two delivered a baby boy delivered at 2:49 a.m. while the Medina ambulance was in Orleans County, followed by a baby girl born at 2:56 a.m. in Genesee County.

The girl was born breech. Both babies and their mother are doing well, the Medina Fire Department stated this morning.

Medina firefighters are also trained to respond to ambulance calls. Fisher is a paramedic. These were his third and fourth field deliveries, while Urquhart, an EMT, made his first and second deliveries in the field.

The ambulance was dispatched at 2:08 a.m. for a call in the village. They then headed to the Batavia hospital with the mother in labor.

“Thanks to our partners at Orleans County Sheriff’s Dispatch and United Memorial Hospital for making this morning go super smooth!” the fire department posted on its social media today. “What a way to start of Independence Day!”

Jason Watts named ‘Water Operations Specialist of the Year’

Provided photo: Jason Watts, right, receives the “Water Specialist of the Year” from Kevin Miller, a state technical assistance provider with the New York Rural Water Association. Watts was recognized during the organization’s annual workshop last month at Verona.

MEDINA – The superintendent of the Village of Medina Department of Public Works has been recognized by the New York Rural Water Association as the “Water Specialist of the Year.”

Jason Watts, the Medina DPW superintendent the past four years, was presented the honor during Rural Water’s annual workshop last month in Verona.

Watts was praised for finding and fixing several big leaks in the village’s water system. That has cut the water loss rate from about 30 percent to about half of that, saving the village significant money in unaccounted for water.

Watts said the DPW’s team of 10 other employees are all dedicated to their jobs, and have been successful hunting down many leaks.

“It’s all my guys that do all of the work,” Watts told the Village Board recently. “I wouldn’t be where I am without them.”

The award from Rural Water goes to someone showing  “outstanding dedication to his profession and duty.”

Watts said the Rural Water Association has been a great resource for Medina, helping to pinpoint some of the leaks.

Photos by Tom Rivers: Fireworks reflect in the Erie Canal on Tuesday after a performance by the Albany Symphony in Medina.

MEDINA – Wednesday was a historic day for Medina with a performance by the Albany Symphony in the Canal Basin followed by fireworks over the Erie Canal.

The concert included the debut of a composition written specifically for the concert in Medina celebrating the 200^th anniversary of the Erie Canal.

The stage was set top next to the Erie Canal in Medina.

David Alan Miller conducts the symphony during Tuesday’s concert. The Grammy award-winning Miller has led the group since 1992.

The opening piece of the concert included 18 minutes of George Frideric Handel’s “Water Music.”

World-renowned, Brazilian American composer Clarice Assad wrote “Medina: A Portrait in Sound” for the event. The composition included taped remarks from Medina residents she met while visiting the community in March. They shared about their love for their hometown, the historic downtown, nature and wildlife, the Christmas decorations on Main Street, Medina Sandstone and cobblestone buildings, and the joy of seeing old friends when out for a walk.

Assad also shared sounds she recorded and were crowdsourced from the community. Some of those included church bells and wildlife, including a rooster crowing.

Assad’s world premiere piece was in seven parts: Home & Nature, Animals, Summer Nostalgia, Winter, Community Heritage, Cultural Diversity and Home & Nature.

Medina Mayor Marguerite Sherman welcomes the Albany Symphony. She thanked the NYS Canal Corp. and New York Power Authority for including Medina as one of five communities along the canal to host the concerts celebrating the bicentennial of the historic waterway.

The rest of the schedule includes: Utica on July 3, Seneca Falls on July 4, Fort Plain on July 5, and Schuylerville on July 6.

Each concert includes a world premiere of a new composition. The themes for the original compositions include environmental justice on July 2, immigrant communities on July 3, women’s rights on July 4, Indigenous stories on July 5, and Black experience on July 6.

Angelyn Chandler, vice president of NYPA, is next to Sherman. Chandler said the new commissioned music is an attempt to tell an “expanded narrative of the canal.”

“We think telling these stories is very important for all of us,” she said.

Chandler thanked Medina for hosting the concert and being part of the bicentennial celebration.

“Thank you for showing us what a canal community can look like and sound like,” she said.

Photo by Cindy Eibl: Two of the performers in the Albany Symphony have local connections. Dana Oakes is a trumpet player with the orchestra. He is the brother of Wendy Oakes Wilson and Darrel Oakes of Lyndonville.

Paula Oakes (center), wife of Dana Oakes, has been a member of the Albany Symphony’s first violin section since 1986.

Britt Hewitt, a soprano at left, and Devony Smith, a mezzo-soprano, sang an arrangement of pop hits, including “Uptown Funk” by Bruno Mars during the concert.

The two singers led off the concert by singing the national anthem, “Star Spangled Banner.”

About 1,000 people attended the concert, a rare event with a symphony performing in Orleans County.

A crowd filled the basin to see the symphony, which performed from a stage on the northside of the parking lot.

The calm water of the Erie Canal acted like mirror reflecting the fireworks on Tuesday night. The fireworks were let off with the threat of rain looming.

Photos by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – A stage has been set up on the north side of the Canal Basin’s parking lot for a concert today by the Albany Symphony.

The orchestra will begin its performance at 8 p.m. The group is shown during a rehearsal this afternoon.

Fireworks will follow after tonight’s concert. People are encouraged to bring their own chair for the concert and fireworks.

The Albany Symphony is in town as part of a celebration of the Erie Canal’s bicentennial. The New York Power Authority and NYS Canal Corp. have set five concerts for the symphony from July 2-6, events that will feature the debut of commissioned compositions.

At Medina, the symphony will perform a new composition by world-renowned, Brazilian American composer Clarice Assad. Her composition is on a “Sound Capture Journey,” as she began crafting a new orchestral work on the theme of the sound of nature and the environment and along the Erie Canal.

Assad visited Medina in March, and she and others recorded sound snippets from around Orleans County, collecting personal stories about local connections to nature, the environment, and individual sense of place.

Jim Hancock, chairman of Medina’s Tourism Committee, welcomes the symphony to Medina today. Hancock organized a day of events with other musicians and historical presentations.

McHenry and Baz performed from noon to about 2 p.m., playing music from the ’60s, ’70s ’80s and ’90s.

Photo by Ginny Kropf: Kay VanNostrand of Medina, left, and her pen pal of 70 years, Kay Reid of Australia, are all smiles as they met for coffee Saturday at the Coffee Pot Café, during Reid’s visit.

MEDINA – Kay VanNostrand of Medina and Kay Reid, who lives in a suburb of Sydney, Australia, could never have imagined as little girls forming a close friendship with someone half-way across the world.

But that is just what they did.

Last week, Reid arrived in Medina to spend some time visiting VanNostrand.

The girls were both 10 when VanNostrand joined Girl Scouts and Reid joined the Australian equivalent – the Girl Guides.

“I got Kay’s name and wrote my first letter to her on July 1, 1955,” Reid said.

“And I wrote right back,” VanNostrand said. “We wrote back and forth all summer.”

But their friendship didn’t end there, although they drifted apart for a few years. Life got in the way, they said.

VanNostrand went to college and became a teacher, while Reid married and raised four children.

“We always sent Christmas cards and gifts,” VanNostrand said. “When we realized we could talk on the phone, that was how we corresponded.”

“When we got computers, we could correspond with Skype,” Reid said.

When VanNostrand retired in 1997, Reid and her sister Margaret came here to visit.

“I asked if we could come visit, and Kay answered, ‘Yes, yes, yes,’” Reid said.

“It took two weeks for me to get her letter and another two weeks for her to get my reply,” VanNostrand said.

In 2002, VanNostrand’s friend Barb Filipiak went to Australia to visit a fellow teacher and extended her stay to visit Reid.

VanNostrand’s first trip to Australia was in 2004.

In 2006 and again in 2008, the Kays met in Hawaii with Filipiak and spent a week together. In 2011 they all met in Alaska, then spent three days after that in Seattle. Reid flew back to Australia and VanNostrand and Filipiak took the train back to Buffalo.

In 2017 Filipiak and VanNostrand went to New Zealand on a tour, and then flew to Australia and spent a week with Reid.

Reid described her flight here this time as a real challenge. She left Sydney on Quantis Airlines and arrived in Dallas to find long lines and only two employees working. She had a two-hour layover to check in, go through Customs and make the long walk to get to the next gate for her flight to Buffalo.

When it became evident the line wasn’t moving fast enough for her to make connections, she found a security person and relayed her concern. He took her where she had to go and she had a 15-minute wait there. In the end, she missed her flight to Buffalo and had a six-hour wait before she could get another flight.

This week, VanNostrand, who turns 83 today, and Reid, who turns 83 on Sept. 12, shared some of their old memories.

“If it wasn’t for Kay, I’d have never done international travel,” Reid said. “It is remarkable because neither of us liked writing letters.”

In previous years, the Kays would open their Christmas gifts together on Skype, but recently they have decided instead of buying each other gifts, they will send something to a charity in the other’s name.

During Reid’s week-long visit, they have done a lot of catching up, they said. They visited Sarah’s Greenhouse and friends in Brockport. They still want to go to Holley Falls and the Western New York National Cemetery in Pembroke.

Reid will leave July 4 to return home to Australia.