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.

Provided photos – The Medina Varsity Guard is pictured after their performance.

Press Release, Medina Mustang Band

MEDINA – The 2016 Winter Guard season came to a conclusion on Saturday when the North East Color Guard Circuit held their championships at SUNY Brockport.

Forty guard units from Central and Western NY and Canada competed in 8 classifications. The ARC of Yates performed in exhibition. This guard consists of individuals with developmental disabilities but when they get on the floor to perform, their enthusiasm captures the audience’s attention and admiration.

In the Cadet class Medina competed against 10 other guards and came in 6th with a score of 67.44.  In the Scholastic A class Medina’s Varsity guard competed against five other units and came in 3rd with a score of 80.92.

The Cadet Guard lines up for the award ceremony.

With the WG season concluding, the band already started practicing for the Spring Street Band season. The band will travel from April 19 to April 24, first to Georgia for a performance at the Westminster Academy. From there the band heads to Florida to perform in the Grand Parade at the Magic Kingdom.

Closer to home the band will compete in the Seneca Falls Pageant on May 21, the local Memorial Day parade, and then at the Gorham Pageant of Bands on June 5.

Photos by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – Curt Strickland, front, and Lang Lilley carry the cross today in an annual Good Friday tradition for the Medina Area Association of Churches. They are pictured in the parking lot for the First Baptist Church.

About 40 people participated in the “Pilgrimage to Golgotha,” taking turns carrying the cross, while local pastors read Scriptures and shared reflections on the solemn day. Despite the cold temperatures in the low to mid 30s, the group was bigger than in recent years.

Michael Stephenson (second from left), pastor of the First Baptist Church in Medina, reads from Scripture during today’s Cross Walk in downtown Medina.

Paul Wengrzycki, a member of the First Baptist Church in Medina, carries the cross in the alley between the Presbyterian Church and KeyBank.

Wengrzycki has been part of the Good Friday tradition in Medina for about 15 years. He said carrying the cross “is a small sacrifice to remember why Jesus died.”

Paul Wengrzycki and his wife Cheryl carry the cross through the alley that leads to Main Street.

Ron Sumption, left, reads a Scripture passage in front of the Presbyterian Church where he serves as pastor. Paul Briggs is holding the “Jesus” sign.

Provided photos – These Medina students worked well under pressure in a competition at GCC on Thursday. The students are, from left: Leeland Tolliver, Alwyn Cayea and James Bieliski.

Press Release, Medina Central School

MEDINA – A three-person team from Clifford Wise Middle School in Medina took home first place among 54 teams in the Design Challenge/Mystery Project at the GCC Tech Wars on Thursday.

Seventh graders James Bieliski, Alwyn Cayea and Leeland Tolliver had 40 minutes for the competition in which they had to design and construct a cantilever arm that could support a tennis ball at the end.

Their technology teachers, Edward Williams and Justin Mergenhagen, took 16 students total to the competition at Genesee Community College.

“We selected the students from our 7th grade class and based it on their ability to solve problems in the classroom, who we felt were our most critical thinkers and who had the best team work skills,” said Mr. Mergenhagen.

The students were given simple materials to complete their task: a bundle of cardboard strips that were 2 inches thick and 38 inches long and a roll of masking tape.

Alwyn came up with the design and Leeland and James improved upon the original idea.

The students work on their projects at GCC.

“They could not tape their design on the floor and their cantilever arm had to be above 38 inches high,” explained Mr. Mergenhagen. “If their ball fell below the 38 inch mark, they would be disqualified. The group that had the longest extended arm from the fulcrum, would be the winner. Our team got an extension arm of 19.5 inches.”

It was a nerve-wracking process for the young engineers. As soon as the teams were told that time was up, they had to bring their projects over to the testing station to be judged. While transporting their project it kept falling over and it took them a couple of minutes to fix the issue.

The judge measured the length of the support arm with the tennis ball sitting on the end of it. The students patiently waited and watched as each group got tested. They were convinced they would not win, but when they noticed all the other group projects were falling over and failing their test, the Medina students started to have hope.

“They were so excited when they found out they were the first place winners,” Mr. Mergenhagen said. “Mr. Williams and I were so proud of their performance and how well they worked together. These boys are excellent deep thinkers and have the ability to tackle tough problem-solving tasks under tight constraints. They concentrated, were focused and communicated well as a team. Hats off to them.”

MEDINA – Lightning strikes early this afternoon have knocked out power for 749 in the Medina area, National Grid is reporting.

The company expects to have power restored at about 2:30 p.m. today.

The National Weather Service says showers with embedded thunderstorms will hit Orleans, northwestern Genesee, northwestern Monroe, northeastern Erie and Niagara counties this afternoon.

“Occasional lightning and dime size hail are possible with these storms,” the Weather Service said.

Provided photos

MEDINA – The Medina Mustang Band hosted a Winterguard show on Saturday with 20 guard units from Western NY and Canada competing. Approximately 350-375 people were in attendance.

The top photo shows the Varsity Guard, which is comprised of 20 students in grades 7-12. Their show is “A-Maze-Zing”. In the Scholastic A class, the Medina Varsity guard came in 2nd with a score of 78.72. Victor took 1st place with a score of 83.01.

In the Cadet Class, Medina competed against six other units and came in 4th with a score of 61.08. The Cadet Guard is comprised of 12 students in grades 1-9 and their show is “Descendants”.

The next and last performance for these groups will be Saturday, March 26, at the NECGC Championships held at Brockport College, the SERC, 350 New Campus Drive.