MEDINA – The Board of Education on Monday granted tenure to seven staff members.

Those granted tenure include: Jamie Schechter, school counselor; Audralee Doll, school counselor; Kayla Rosenbeck, ELA teacher in grades 7-12; Kelsey Evoy, elementary; Morgan Brower, school counselor; Megan Gooden, elementary teacher; and Joel Reed, high school assistant principal.

Provided photo

MEDINA – The Medina Knights of Columbus raised $3,080 for humanitarian relief in Ukraine. The fish fry on Good Friday, April 15, raised $1,789. Donations collected during the seven Lenten fish fries added up to another $1,291.

Pictured include the K of C Fish Fry Crew.

Front row, from left: Martha Gardner, Jim Mirand and Laura Valley. Middle row: Dave Cook, Denny Dubai, Robie Dubai, Virginia Klotzbach, Jeanne Crane, Joy Gardner and Pam Cook. Back row: Howie Gardner, Alan Worgo, Darlene Rich, Melissa Cotter, Dave Cotter, Kristian Snyder, Kate Hardner, Mike Goheen and Skip Draper.

Also part of the crew but not pictured include: Mike Fisher, Mike Sidari, Mike Fuller, Scott Grimm, Sally Grimm, Cathy Fox and Eric Valley.

The Knights want to thank the community for their support and donations during the Lenten season.

Photos by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – Jeremiah Holloway in front carries the cross across West Center Street near the West Avenue intersection. He is assisted by Joshua Watts and Shonn Effner.

“I definitely feel a deeper connection to my faith,” Holloway said.

The three were among 40 participants today in the annual “Cross Walk” by the Medina Area Association of Churches and the Medina Clergy Fellowship.

The churches have been doing the annual “Pilgrimage to Golgotha” for at least two decades on Good Friday. They go to seven stops in the village, reading scripture and singing hymns.

Mike Zaidel, a member of Alabama Full Gospel Fellowship, holds the cross in front of City Hall while Pastor Michael Stephenson of the First Baptist Church addresses the group.

Zaidel carried the cross on part of the journey today.

“Even carrying it just a little ways made my hand numb,” he said. “I can’t imagine the pain that Jesus went through.”

Pastor Garry McCaffery of United Methodist Church of the Abundant Harvest gives the reading from John 18:1-14 from the steps of City Hall.

In back, Amy Watts holds a resurrection flag and her husband Joshua Watts holds a Yeshua flag about the “crown of thorns.”

Pastor Dan Thurber of the Oak Orchard Assembly of God church carries the cross in front while William Dabb is in back. They are crossing East Center Street near the Main Street intersection.

Jeremiah Holloway, in back, and Jarred Saj carry the cross down Pearl Street.

Jarred Saj is in front with the cross as the group moves along West Avenue to the Medina Historical Society. Neil Samborski is dressed as a centurion.

Pastor Jovannie Canales of the Second Church True Disciples of Jesus Christ carries the cross from Cooper Funeral Home to the First Baptist Church. Canales also shared one of the readings on the Cross Walk.

“It was a very deep experience for me,” he said about carrying the cross. “It put me in the place of a deeper understanding of what Jesus went through.”

Curt Strickland holds the cross amidst the fierce winds this afternoon. He is shown next to the First Baptist Church with Rudy’s Diner in the background.

There will be a Good Friday worship service at 6:30 p.m. today at the Oak Orchard Assembly of God, sponsored by PACT (Pastors Aligned for Community Transformation).

There is also a Good Friday worship service at 6:30 p.m. today at The Grove Methodist Church.

There will be a Sunrise Service on Easter morning at 6:30 at Boxwood Cemetery.

MEDINA – The Village Board expects to decide at its April 25 meeting whether it will allow alcohol to be served during blues concerts on Thursday evenings at State Street Park.

The Orleans Renaissance Group is organizing the concerts over five weeks from July 7 to Aug. 4. The group has modified its application to village to include alcoholic drinks from Leonard Oakes Estate Winery and 810 Meadworks.

The board wants to see permits from the State Liquor Authority before deciding whether the village will give its OK.

The board on Monday was notified April 29 will be the annual Arbor Day celebration with third-graders joining village officials for a tree-planting at 10 a.m. on West Avenue.

Jim Hancock, chairman of Medina’s Tourism Committee, said a new kiosk is coming to the Canal Basin. Takeform is giving it a new, modern look and will highlight Medina attractions and events. A grant could help with the expense, he said.

MEDINA – Village officials are in the throes of work on the 2022-23 village budget. The spending plan needs to be adopted by April 30.

The board held a public hearing on the tentative $6,368,175 budget on Monday evening. That tentative budget would set the tax levy at $3,735,640 and the tax rate at $21.47.

Mayor Mike Sidari said the rate will certainly be under $20 per $1,000 of assessed property. The board wants to get the rate to a minimal increase over the $18.77 in the current 2021-22 budget. That $6,109,526 budget raised $3,259,119 through the tax levy.

“We still have budgets to go through,” Sidari said during Monday’s hearing. “We will work our best to get down to the tax limit.”

The board voted Monday to override the tax cap with the budget, but that doesn’t mean the board will exceed the cap which for Medina is only about a 1 percent increase.

“We all know expenses are running high,” Sidari said. “We don’t know what’s going on with gas, with tires, with salt. There are several issues affecting our budget. We will try to get it down as low as we can.”

MEDINA – Organizers of the Medina Dog Park have the Village Board approval to make a change in the plans for the park by putting a fenced-in area for small dogs on right side of the driveway instead of the left, or the south side instead of the north.

Alaina Zapf, president of the Friends of the Medina Dog Park, met with the board on Monday and shared how moving the small park section would allow the park to utilize existing trees as well as one side of the fencing already in place.

The plan would basically elongate the current fenced-in area for dogs, she said. The plan calls for a 100-by-100-foot enclosure for small dogs

The area on the south side also is up higher and less “swampy” than the north side, Zapf said.

The park is at 260 North Gravel Rd., by the village’s former compost plant. It is across the street from The Gallagher, a barn used for weddings and special events.

The park opened in September 2020, and Mayor Mike Sidari said he sees increased use at the site.

The dog park is a place for dogs to socialize and get some exercise near the village. The dog park is a first in Orleans County. The park is a place for where the dogs can roam leash-free.

Photo by Tom Rivers: Brian Stratton, state canal director, is on the hydro-bike and Greg Reed, Orleans County YMCA director, is in the kayak in this photo on June 15, 2021 at Medina’s Canal Basin.

MEDINA – The kayaks and hydro-bikes will be back in Medina this summer.

The State Canal Corp. offered the 8-week program last year. Medina was one of five canal communities offering free “On the Canals” outdoor excursions last summer as part of the state’s Reimagine the Canals initiative. The other communities in the program include Macedon, Waterloo, Savannah and Amsterdam.

Medina will offer them again this year, but it will be scaled down from six days to four days. People can use the kayaks and hydro-bikes without a charge and can make appointments online. The Orleans County YMCA manages the program for the state.

Greg Reed, YMCA director, notified the Medina Village Board the program will be back this summer and will be offered from the Canal Basin on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and then at Glenwood Lake on Fridays and Saturdays.

Last year, about 1,200 people signed up to use the kayaks and hydro-bikes, Reed said.

Village wants to use funds to promote tourism and bring more visitors to Medina

Photo by Tom Rivers: This worker shown in late January does some final prep of the 58-room Comfort Inn & Suites that opened in March on Maple Ridge Road.

MEDINA – The village could soon be getting a new revenue stream through a 2 percent “bed tax” on hotel, motel, “tourist home” and other lodging in the village.

The Medina Village Board first pushed for the tax in 2018 but the initiative stalled in the State Legislature. But State Sen. Rob Ortt and Assemblyman Steve Hawley have taken up the issue again and introduced resolutions in the Senate and Assembly.

Medina needs the approval of the State Legislature to collect the tax. Since its initial push for the bed tax, Medina has added 10 more hotel rooms at the Bent’s Opera House in the downtown and also with a new 58-room Comfort Inn & Suites on Maple Ridge Road that opened last month. The Bunkhaus Hostel also opened in late 2019.

Mayor Mike Sidari said the revenue through the bed tax would be dedicated to better position Medina as a tourism destination and help the village better capitalize on the canal, its historic downtown and agri-tourism. He isn’t sure how much in revenue to expect from the tax each year.

The county currently receives a 4 percent occupancy tax. That totaled nearly $60,000 in both 2019 and 2020. The Medina tax would be in addition to the 4 percent imposed by the county for lodging businesses inside the village.

Medina doesn’t receive any of the county’s bed tax. The village has been looking for ways to increase revenue to promote the village. The county hasn’t increased the local sales tax share to village and towns since 2001 and the state Aid and Incentives to Municipalities hasn’t been increased in many years. Medina only gets $45,523 in state AIM, a tiny fraction of what the state gives a similar-size city.

If the Legislature approves the occupancy tax for Medina, it would take effect “immediately,” according to the legislation from Ortt.