Photo and information courtesy of Medina Mustang Band
WEBSTER – The Webster school district hosted the Autumn Fanfare on Oct. 7, where six high school marching bands performed in competition.
Medina took first place in SS1 with a score of 82.35 followed by East Irondequoit at 76.55.
In SS3 Marcus Whitman was first with 66.45, and Leroy was tops in SS2 with 70. Cicero-North Syracuse won LS2 with 82.85 followed by Webster at 81.2.
The Medina band will next compete on Oct. 14 in Victor and Oct. 21 in Orchard Park before the State Championships in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse on Oct. 29.
The band will celebrate Senior Recognition Night at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 25 at Vets’ Park or in the high school in case of inclement weather. The band will perform their show “With Every Heartbeat” followed by recognizing each senior who will be accompanied by their parents. This is open to the public for anyone who wants to see the show and not have to travel.
The Band Boosters are also are offering a charter spectator bus for $25/seat on Oct. 29 to Syracuse. Passengers will be picked up at the high school at noon and returned to the high school around 1:30 a.m. Passengers will still have to purchase their own ticket at the gate, and they are $18 per person and $12 for seniors and children under 12. Passengers will see all of SS2, SS1 and the National class. Medina performs at 7 p.m.
There are 55 seats on the bus and payments must be in by or before Oct. 14. To make a reservation, fill out the form located on the Medina CSD website – under the Arts then go to Medina Mustang Band – scroll down to “Spectator Bus.” Another option is to call Kim Zakes, the Dome Bus Coordinator, at 716-622-9854 or email her at kzakes@medinacsd.org.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 October 2017 at 10:01 am
Photo by Tom Rivers: Increasing pedestrian access to the Medina Waterfalls is one of the projects sought by Medina leaders in a $10 million state application that was denied. Medina is going to try again for the funding if the state has another round in the downtown revitalization initiative.
MEDINA – Medina village officials and community members worked together earlier this year on a $10 million application to the state for a Downtown Revitalization Initiative.
Medina didn’t get the grant, but Mayor Mike Sidari said Medina will try again.
“We’re already starting to review it and make changes,” he said about the application.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo was in Batavia on Friday afternoon to announce Batavia as the winner of the $10 million in the Finger Lakes region, which includes Orleans County.
This is the second year Cuomo and the state have made the $10 million available to 10 “distressed downtowns” around the state. Last year, The City of Geneva won the award in the Finger Lakes.
“Eligible projects will include those that grow small businesses and employment, expand housing, improve transportation, and partner with large institutions such as universities and hospitals,” Cuomo said in announcing the downtown grants in January 2016.
File photo by Tom Rivers: This photo from April 2014 shows the Bent’s Opera House, which was built in 1864. The building is undergoing a major renovation to become an upscale restaurant, boutique hotel and event space.
At Batavia on Friday, the governor said the state wants to jumpstart projects to create “cool places” that appeal to millennials to live and work. The younger generation entering the workforce wants to be able to walk to cafes and restaurants. The state wants to reward communities that have plans to reimagine their downtowns, Cuomo said.
Medina’s grant application highlighted recent successes, including a $10 million investment by Baxter Healthcare, which has added 400 jobs since 2012. Canadian firms such as Brunner, Pride Pak and Hinspergers Poly Industries also are heavily invested in Medina.
The application sought to take better advantage of the wide Canal Basin, which Medina officials said has “underutilized and untapped potential.”
The Medina application says the downtown is ideally situated between Rochester and Buffalo. The village is on the Niagara Wine Trail and includes destination restaurants such as Mariachi De Oro and Zambistro’s.
Medina already has several popular events and attractions such as the Polar Express (19,000 in December), Parade of Lights (10,000 in late November), Thomas the Tank Engine (12,000 in May), Steampunk Festival, Wine about Winter, Ale in Autumn and Farm-to-Table dinner.
The application notes planned investments in the community, including a $6 million renovation of the Bent’s Opera House to develop the site into a boutique hotel, high-end restaurant and event space. The former Medina High School also is planned to be redeveloped into a mixed-use facility with apartments.
Medina also has a Business Park that has been a finalist for significant projects, including one manufacturer that would have created 800 jobs. Besides that coveted land in the business park, Medina is also 8 miles from the STAMP high-tech park in the Town of Alabama.
With the recent business expansions and prospects for more mean industry, Medina will feel a demand for residential opportunities, the application from Medina stated.
Much of the Medina housing stock and downtown architecture is in need of significant investment following decades of economic depression in the community, the application states.
Some highlights of Medina’s application for the Downtown Revitalization Initiative include:
This rendering shows a reimagined Canal Basin with expanded amenities for boaters and kayaks.
• Canal Basin Revitalization:
Medina proposed burying power lines (costs and lead times have already been obtained from National Grid), reconfiguring parking and roadway, improving pedestrian/bicycle traffic flow and replacing concrete wall with grass and tree lined slope. Medina also wants to remediate any soil conditions as needed.
The village application also sought Canal Basin infrastructure improvements with upgraded boating Amenities – slips, docks, tie-ups and restroom improvements, better lighting for security and ambiance, a boat launch and a kayak launch, as well as more tree plantings and walkway improvements.
• Medina Waterfall Area Upgrades
The Medina waterfall exists as a result of a unique engineering infrastructure feat related to the Canal and Canal Basin, the Medina application states. Medina wants to bolster this unique opportunity around the canal and the Medina area and create a regional tourist attraction that would also draw more customers to downtown businesses and improve the local quality of life.
The application sought to allow pedestrian access to the waterfall, and also repair sidewalks and improve lighting.
• Seasonal Business Development Program
The village in its application sought a design and development program for seasonal businesses entrepreneurial opportunities. Medina said it would engage architecture and design students from local universities to help design and construct any temporary or permanent Canal Basin shop buildings.
• Streetscape Upgrades
The goal of the improved streetscapes would be to connect the surrounding residential areas to downtown and the Canal Basin. This effort would also work in with conjunction with the Brownfield Acquisition & Development portion of the proposed plan as well as the overall planing board initiative to improve pedestrian walkways and bike paths throughout the village.
• Buildings & Facades – Mixed Use
This program promotes enhanced usage of Medina’s unique downtown building stock – an asset base with many buildings comprised of priceless Medina Sandstone housed in a compact four corner downtown district which supports entrepreneurial pursuits, social engagement, civic leadership, walkability, cultural events and preservation, according to the application.
The recent capital investments by businesses in the community is creating a larger and larger housing and temporary lodging deficiency within the Medina area. This portion of funding would be directed toward attracting the national level talent these companies are seeking by leveraging Medina’s existing untaped architectural resources and infrastructure to increase unique hotel, temporary and permanent housing options across a diverse project set.
Mixed use developments with residential projects would better utilize buildings and boost the local tax base, Medina officials said.
Ken and Rose Baker from Baker Farms in Medina, right, are pictured last November with Kari Kasmier, a beekeeper who sells honey at the Canal Village Farmers’ Market. The Orleans Renaissance Group would like to see the site developed into year-round facility with bathrooms and more amenities.
Medina also said some of the $10 million award could be used to expand the scope, utilization and economic development within the local farmers market (Canal Village Farmers Market) – perhaps with a year-round facility. The market could use bathrooms, lighting, paints, etc. The market fills a need in the downtown with the nearest grocery store 2 miles away.
Medina could design and develop a best practice strategy for increasing local food consumption, local farmer economic support via community purchasing power and overall cultural awareness of the benefits related to supporting local food movements (reduced carbon footprints, access to whole healthy fruits and vegetables for blighted neighborhoods).
• Brownfield Acquisition & Development
There are two key brownfield sites coupled with two existing properties within the downtown Medina area that could be leveraged in accordance with the previously laid out infrastructure projects. Both 151 Pearl Street and 331 Main Street could be transformed into a mixed-use municipal parking and green space lot serving parking needs while increasing overall green space.
Photo by Tom Rivers: The site on Main Street that used to be the Starlite Cleaners could be redeveloped into parking and green space, Medina said in its state application for $10 million.
Although Medina missed the $10 million grant this round, it looks like the state will continue to offer the program next year. The governor said the state was expecting 20-22 applications for the downtown grants around the state received 104.
Vincent Esposito, regional director of the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council, encouraged Medina to try again for the funding.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 4 October 2017 at 7:18 am
Developer of hotel needs to provide more information for Maple Ridge project
MEDINA – The Village of Medina Planning Board on Tuesday approved the site plan for a pizzeria at the former K & K Food Mart, a building on Maple Ridge Road that has been vacant for several years.
James Bitsas and Marc Massaro will work together in operating a pizzeria at 11360 Maple Ridge Rd. Cusimano’s Pizzeria will be in an existing 3,300-square-foot building.
While that project was given the final OK on Tuesday, the board said more information is needed on a proposed 3-story hotel would be 10,557 square feet on Maple Ridge Road.
BriMark Builders is proposing a new 58-room hotel at 11591 Maple Ridge Rd., in the Medina Business Park. The new Cobblestone Inn and Suites hotel would be next to Pride Pak and almost across the street from Genesee Community College.
Cobblestone Inn and Suites has built about 80 hotels with most of them in small towns, typically working with investors in the host community. An investor from Pennsylvania is leading the effort in Medina. This is Cobblestone’s first project in New York.
Planning Board Chairman Chris Busch said the board is pleased with the project, but there are some additional reviews and information needed. The Medina Tree Board will review the tree planting scheme and the Medina Fire Department will review the plan for rear fire access.
BriMark also needs to provide further clarification and documentation for the project, which will be reviewed by Bergmann Associates in Rochester.
The project includes 65 parking spots, an access drive, outdoor patio, sidewalks, dumpster enclosure, and an optional future gravel truck parking area. Stormwater will be collected and diverted through a dry swale network to a proposed wet pond at the northeast of the site.
The Planning Board on Tuesday also approved three certificates of appropriateness including the front façade colors for Gypsy’s, a new coffee and dessert bar at 435 Main St.; the front façade colors for Zambistro, a restaurant at 408 Main St.; and the rear façade materials for a lily and a sparrow, a women’s clothing store at 438 Main St.
File photo by Tom Rivers: This stone carving of a face is part of the Richmond Memorial Library in Batavia, a Medina Sandstone building that was completed in 1889. It has been nominated for the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame.
Press Release, Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame
MEDINA – The Medina Sandstone Society will induct its Class of 2017 into the Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame on Oct. 19.
The new class will be honored with a reception in Medina City Hall, 600 Main St. at 1 p.m.
In attendance will be representatives of the four award-winning sandstone structures located in four Western NY counties Orleans, Monroe, Genesee and Chautauqua.
Also attending the award presentation will be local dignitaries and members of the Sandstone Society called “Stonecutters” who provide financial support and assistance.
The 2017 Class is the fifth Hall of Fame Class to be inducted since the original class in 2013. Selections to the 2017 class included six new nominations received this past year, as well as over 20 previous nominations not yet inducted.
The Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame reflects the century from 1830 to 1930 when Medina Sandstone was a favored building material of famed builders and architects, and was used in countless churches, homes and public edifices, not to mention long spans of city streets and curbing. It was used all over America, overseas, and remains largely intact today.
Structures chosen for the Hall of Fame are outstanding buildings made of Medina Sandstone. The Hall of Fame Selection Committee made trips around the state and contiguous areas to research and photograph the buildings nominated.
Selection criteria include architectural uniqueness, beauty, preservation efforts, and functional status. Each inductee is presented with a handsome plaque to display within the structure. A companion plaque is then shown in the Hall of Fame itself.
For additional information about the Medina Sandstone Society and the Hall of Fame please visit their website at: www.SandstoneSociety.org.
Photos courtesy of CJ Cruickshank, a Medina High School senior
MEDINA – Homecoming was celebrated last week at Medina High School, with the king and queen crowned during a pep assembly on Friday. Trenton Jones was named king and Madison Kenward was picked the queen.
The Homecoming Court of girls includes, from left: Grace Flores, Madison Kenward (Queen), Destiny Satkowski, Alexis Adams and Hannah Sones.
Homecoming Court of boys includes Trenton Jones (King), Jorge Phillips, Elijah Sones, Jake Bensley and Alden Cayea.
MEDINA – The Medina Mustang Band performed in competition for the third time this season on Saturday in Lancaster. It was a clear, crisp night with seven bands competing at the show.
Medina took top score in SS1 with 81.35. Each week there are changes to the drill and the props which is a credit to the students who are able to incorporate these changes and to the prop crew who build the props and transport them onto the field.
In SS3 Pioneer took first place with a score of 66.85; Northwestern in SS2 with 72.7; and Jamestown in National class with 80.65.
There are four more opportunities to see the Medina show, “With Every Heartbeat.” The band will perform Oct. 7 in Webster, Oct. 14 in Victor, Oct. 21 in Orchard Park and then at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse on Oct. 29.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 October 2017 at 4:56 pm
Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – Youngsters check out a Mercy Flight helicopter that landed in Medina today at about noon as part of an open house at the Medina Fire Department.
Besides the helicopter, the open house included fire safety material, fire station tours, fire extinguisher training, family activities, antique cars and fire trucks, and carnival games.
The Sheriff’s Office “Safe Child” program with car seat inspections also were available, as well as New York State Police’s “Beer Goggles” simulator and the Carlton Fire Department rescue boat.
Today was the public debut of a new 35-foot-long fire safety training trailer. The trailer is owned by Orleans County’s Emergency Management Office, and is available to all 12 fire departments in the county. It was paid for with a $75,000 state grant from Sen. Robert Ortt.
Dale Banker, the county’s emergency management coordinator, turns on some fog in the trailer. The trailer will be used to help children and families develop fire escape plans.
The trailer will be at local school districts next week for fire prevention week. There have been 40 firefighters in the county trained to students through the trailer.
Firefighters stress the importance of having working smoke alarms, knowing two ways of getting out of a room. A door is the first try, but the second way out may be a window. Families should also have a meeting place outside a house or apartment in case of fire. Usually that is in front of the residence.
Christine Falls of Lockport, in red shirt, and Logan Quackenbush, 6, of Medina practice getting out of a window and going down a ladder at the fire safety trailer.
Medina firefighter Timothy Miller helps his twin sons, Caleb (left) and Sam, 3, aim a fire nozzle at a target as part of the open house today.
Jack Buondonno, 3, sets up pins as part of a bowling game today.
Sarah Young gets a picture of her daughter, Abigail, crawling through a tunnel to simulate staying low under smoke. Abigail’s father Mike is a Medina firefighter.
Medina firefighter Steve Cooley watches traffic while Mercy Flight lands at about noon.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 September 2017 at 11:58 pm
Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – There were about 700 people on the annual Ale in Autumn beer-tasting tour in downtown Medina on Saturday. That event is also a showcase for businesses that welcome in the beer-tasters.
The top photo shows Sonya Moss, left, and her cousin Ann Negron at Habichuela’s, a Puerto Rican restaurant at 701 S. Main St.
“It brings in a lot of new people, as well as some of our regular customers,” said Moss.
Habichuela’s opened in June 2016 and participates in Ale as well as Wine About Winter, the wine-tasting event organized by the Medina Business Association.
Moss said about 700 people were expected to come through the door at Habichuela’s for Ale in Autumn. Habichuela’s served tastes of Mortiz, a pale ale from Barcelona, Spain.
Rosenkrans created this sign to welcome the Ale in Autumn crowd. The event is a chance to have the ale tasters see the business, which includes a gift shop.
“We have 700 people who are coming inside and they’re going through the entire store,” said Michelle Leffler, the pharmacy manager at Rosenkrans, which served an Italian beer.
Nicole Baumgart of Canalside Tattoo pours samples of a Mexican craft beer called Pay the Ferryman.
“This gives an introduction of who we are and what we do,” said Shawn Ramsey, Canalside owner. “Many have said they’ve never been in a tattoo parlor before. Many are taken by how clean and open and bright it is.”
Proceeds from the event will help the Medina Business Association with improvement projects in the downtown business district.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 29 September 2017 at 7:30 am
Courtesy of Cobblestone Suites: The proposed 58-room hotel in Medina will look similar to this Cobblestone Suites hotel in Pennsylvania.
MEDINA – The Orleans County Planning Board on Thursday approved the site plan for a new 58-room hotel at 11591 Maple Ridge Rd., in the Medina Business Park.
BriMark Builders is the applicant for the new Cobblestone Inn and Suites hotel on Maple Ridge Road, next to Pride Pak and almost across the street from Genesee Community College. BriMark is based in Neenah, Wisc.
The 3-story hotel would be 10,557 square feet. This is Cobblestone’s first project in New York.
Cobblestone Inn and Suites has built about 80 hotels with most of them in small towns, typically working with investors in the host community. An investor from Pennsylvania is leading the effort to build the project in Medina.
The Orleans Economic Development Agency has been trying for years to recruit a national chain hotel to the county. Cobblestone Suites fulfills that goal for the EDA. The new hotel will encourage more overnight stays for visitors in the county.
BriMark needs a height variance for the hotel. The Medina code limits building height in the Light Industrial District to 35 feet. The hotel peaks at 55 feet to the top of the cupola and the roof peaks at 44 feet.
The County Planning Board recommended Medina approve a height variance for the project.
The project includes 65 parking spots, an access drive, outdoor patio, sidewalks, dumpster enclosure, and an optional future gravel truck parking area. Stormwater will be collected and diverted through a dry swale network to a proposed wet pond at the northeast of the site.
The Medina Planning Board will have a public hearing for the site plan at 7:10 p.m. on Oct. 3 at City Hall on Main Street.
File photo by Tom Rivers: Village officials worry about pedestrian safety along Maple Ridge Road, which has seen several new businesses open in recent years.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 September 2017 at 9:05 pm
MEDINA – Village officials believed they made a compelling case a year ago for the state to approve a grant for sidewalks and a pedestrian bridge over Oak Orchard Creek on Maple Ridge Road.
Medina submitted a grant application last year for the funding, but was denied. (The Village of Holley was approved for a $1.78 million TAP grant.) The TAP – Transportation Alternatives Grant – is 80 percent federally funded with a 20 percent local share. The funding is from the federal government, but awarded by the state.
To improve its chances for the next time funding is available, Medina is going to develop a plan for sidewalks on Maple Ridge Ridge. These won’t be sidewalk replacements, but new walkways for what has become a busy commercial strip with many residences nearby.
The Village Board agreed on Monday to work with a consultant from Wendel to develop a plan for the sidewalk grant. Adam Tabelski, a former Medina mayor, will work with the village on the project. Wendel has offered to do the planning work for free, Mayor Mike Sidari said.
“We want to have a plan in place for when funding comes up again,” the mayor said today.
The state a year ago welcomed proposals from municipalities for $98.7 million to support bicycle, pedestrian, multi-use path and transportation-related programs as well as projects that reduce congestion and help to meet the requirements of the Clean Air Act.
Medina wanted some of those funds to make a busy thoroughfare safer for pedestrians. There are sidewalks near the Route 63 intersection on Maple Ridge Road, but most of the road lacks sidewalks from Bates Road to the former Ames plaza.
Sidari said many people walk along Maple Ridge Road or use motorized wheelchairs. He said the sidewalks would improve safety for many local residents.
The village worked with Labella Associates in Rochester to put together a grant application a year ago. The initial cost estimates were about $1.3 million to extend sidewalks from Bates Road to the Ames plaza. That included a pedestrian bridge over the Oak Orchard Creek by the Mariachi De Oro restaurant.
Sidari said Maple Ridge has become busier with GCC, manufacturing plants, chain stores and a residential community. The Orleans Economic Development Agency also is working to develop a hotel on Maple Ridge next to the Pride Pak vegetable processing plant.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 September 2017 at 2:19 pm
MEDINA – The Village of Medina and Town of Shelby are making a trade that officials say will help both municipalities by saving them from purchasing equipment.
Shelby is giving Medina a lawn mower that Mayor Mike Sidari said is worth about $4,000 to $5,000. It will be used to mow some of the playing fields in village parks.
The village is giving Shelby a generator from the water tank. That generator isn’t being used.
Sidari said the trade is an example of the two municipalities working together.
In other action during Monday’s Village Board meeting:
• Approved a project by local Boy Scout Travis Gotts. He wants to repair two signs that say “The Medina Area Association of Churches Welcomes You.” He also will be putting up for new signs for the MAAC at the intersection of East Center Street and Bates Road, West Center Street and Salt Works Road, Ricky Place on Maple Ridge Road, and possibly one on Main Street by Orleans Ford. The wooden signs will be painted. Gotts is doing the project to earn his Life Scout rank.
• Mayor Mike Sidari named members of a Wastewater Committee to study the capacity and future needs at the sewer plant. Sidari will serve on the committee along with former DPW Superintendent Peter Houseknecht, Jim Whipple from the Orleans Economic Development Agency and an alternate, Gabrielle Barone of the Orleans EDA.
• The board set 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. as the trick or treating hours on Halloween, which is Oct. 31.
• The board agreed to have the police department help with traffic control during Beggar’s Night in downtown Medina from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Oct. 27.
• Approved hiring Brett Goheen to work as a sewage treatment plant operator.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 September 2017 at 10:45 am
Photo by Tom Rivers: Medina firefighters were part of a mass casualty drill on Sept. 16 in Barre.
MEDINA – The Medina Fire Department is adding four firefighter positions that will be mostly paid for with a federal grant.
The new recruits will go to the firefighter training academy in February and are expected to be working full-time in Medina in May, said Fire Chief Tom Lupo.
Medina on Aug. 31 was approved for a $530,661 to boost the staffing for the department that handles about 3,000 calls a year. The new firefighters will reduce overtime costs in the department, and also allow Medina to improve service, especially when ambulances and staff are occupied with transports, taken patients from Medina to hospitals in Buffalo or Rochester, Lupo said.
“There has been a huge increase in call volume,” he said. We also have longer travel times to Rochester and Buffalo hospitals. This will really take care of some of the overtime.”
The grant pays 100 percent of the training and equipment for the four new firefighters, and covers 65 percent of the salaries the first year. That percentage will decrease over three years. The fourth year, the village will have to pay 100 percent of the cost.
However, Lupo said Medina isn’t obligated to keep the four firefighters after the grant expires in three years.
The department currently has 16 firefighters and will go to 20. Lupo said Medina is vulnerable to losing some of its staff to larger departments. Three firefighters have left recently, with two going to Batavia and one to Lockport.
U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced the grant for Medina on Aug. 31.
The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grants (SAFER), established by FEMA within the Department of Homeland Security, was created to provide funding directly to fire departments and volunteer firefighter interest organizations to help them increase the number of trained, “front line” firefighters available in their communities.
The four new firefighters in Medina will support the department’s “Fast Team,” who are responsible not only for fires in Medina but also address fires outside of their district within Orleans County. The funding will also help Medina staff engines with more than two people.
The Fire Department will have its annual open house this Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with games focusing on fire prevention, a food truck from Mariachi De Oro and a visit from the Mercy Flight. The community will also have a chance to meet the Medina firefighters.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 27 September 2017 at 7:28 am
‘We are rapidly getting to the point where there is no space left.’ – Marty Busch, Medina code enforcement officer
MEDINA – The downtown business district on Main and Center streets has enjoyed a renaissance the past decade, with many new businesses opening in the village’s historic commercial buildings.
“We are rapidly getting to the point where there is no space left,” Marty Busch, the Medina code enforcement officer, told the Village Board on Monday.
Medina held a public hearing on creating a Business Overlay District. The board followed the Planning Board’s recommendation to put the overlay on West Avenue, from the Walsh Hotel near the railroad tracks to Lee Place, an alley next to St. Mary’s Catholic Church.
This new option will allow businesses to set up on West Avenue without spot zoning. Busch said the overlay district would allow offices, frame shops, physician and dentist offices, and other businesses that are not considered high impact in a residential area.
The businesses would be required to have some screening by neighboring residential properties. The businesses also will have to go before the Planning Board for certificates of appropriateness for any signs and exterior building alterations.
Village officials favored West Avenue over other spots for the overlay district because it’s so close to the downtown district. That makes it contiguous and easily walkable, Busch said.
The overlay district gives businesses a new option right by the central business district. Without the overlay district, village officials were concerned some new businesses might start popping up all over the village, making the businesses appear to be haphazardly located.
“This helps to focus the central business district,” Busch said.
Photos by Tom Rivers: The old Medina High School on Catherine Street now has a zoning option to be redeveloped for residential use. The school is currently used by the Calvary Tabernacle Church, Orleans County Christian School and for a clothing depot run by the Medina Area Association of Churches.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 26 September 2017 at 3:03 pm
MEDINA – The Village Board approved zoning on Monday that would allow for residential redevelopment of the old Medina High School on Catherine Street and the Sacred Heart church complex on Ann Street.
The new “Planned Residential Development” zoning allows for adaptive reuse of larger structures located within a residential area. The new zoning is a “floating zoning classification” for the two sites, which means the zoning wouldn’t be designated unless a project to repurpose the large buildings becomes a reality.
Code Enforcement Officer Marty Busch said prospective developers have looked at both sites. But without the planned residential development zoning, the buildings couldn’t be converted into apartments or condos, Busch said.
“Without (the zoning), they are going to sit, sit, sit,” Busch said about the two sites. “It will be hard to sell them.”
There have been potential buyers for the Sacred Heart site, “but they walked away because of the zoning,” he said.
The Sacred Heart church complex on Ann Street also is included in the “Planned Residential Development” zoning for Medina.
Photos by Tom Rivers: Craig Lacy, vice president and treasurer of the Medina Historical Society, is pictured with a school bell from the Medina Academy. The bell was made in 1850 in Buffalo. The Medina Academy opened in 1851.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 26 September 2017 at 1:27 pm
MEDINA – A bell from 1850 that rang to welcome school children and also to send them home likely will be returning to the school district to be displayed prominently.
The 700-pound bell was donated to the Medina Historical Society last month by Carl Petronio of Albion. He kept the bell for 50 years after he and his father found it in the basement of a burnt-out school building in Medina. Carl Petronio Construction Company was hired in 1967 to clear out the debris from the badly damaged school building.
Petronio last month donated the bell to the Historical Society. He would like it to be displayed prominently in the community.
This image shows the Medina Free Academy, which opened in 1851 with the average attendance of about 300 to 400 students. The bell tower is at top.
Craig Lacy, vice president and treasurer of the Historical Society, thinks the bell should be set up at the current school district, perhaps in the high school or outside in an enclosed display.
He met with the Board of Education last week, and the board was receptive to having the bell come home to the district. Mark Kruzynski, the district superintendent, said Medina is considering how to best display it.
Putting it in the vestibule by the high school auditorium would protect it from the elements and vandals, and also have it in a spot where it would be seen by many people, Kruzynski said. That is one possibility for the bell’s location.
Lacy didn’t know the bell still existed until last month. Right now, it’s in the basement of Lacy’s NAPA Auto Parts store in Medina. He was happy to show the bell today to a news reporter, and even rang the bell.
“It’s a great artifact,” he said. “There are a lot of great possibility for this for this bell because it still does work.”
He thinks it rests on its original wooden carriage. He imagines the bell could be rung during commencement or the first day of school.
The cast bronze bell was made in Buffalo in 1850.
The bell has power symbolically for the community. When the Medina Academy opened in 1851, it was only the third school to offer free education for students. Most academies then were tuition-based, Lacy said.
“It really stands for something, this bell,” he said.
The State Legislature in 1849 made a special act to allow for the incorporation of the Medina Free Academy. The Legislature empowered Medina to tax residents to support the school and also to form a Board of Education to govern the school.
“This bell is an amazing acquisition for the community,” Lacy said. “It is a real, tangible artifact representing not only the roots of modern education in Medina, but also for all of Western New York as it sat atop only the third school in New York State to offer free secondary education to its residents.”
