By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 21 January 2019 at 9:19 am
MEDNA – The Medina Theatre will be open today as a warming center for people who want to stop in on a brutally cold day.
Amy Herman, the manager and event coordinator at the Theatre, noted the public library and other public buildings are closed due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
With those sites closed, she said people have fewer places to go if they need a respite from the harsh weather.
“It’s too cold,” she said. “It is freezing out there. I know there are people out there who are homeless, who don’t have power.”
She welcomed people to stop by the Theatre at 601 Main St. She will have food and beverages available for free for people who need a break from the cold.
“We’ll be here for as long as people need it,” she said.
The temperature is currently 1 below zero and is forecast to reach a high of 8 degrees today.
Photo by Ginny Kropf: Jeff Lyons holds an accident victim extrication tool. He has just become a dealer for extrication equipment and started a new business, Genesis Rescue Systems. He sells cutting tools, a ram, stabilization blocks, jacks and air bags. His nephew Easton, 3, and Jeff's father Ancel check out the tool.
By Ginny Kropf, correspondent Posted 18 January 2019 at 12:26 pm
MEDINA – As a 15-year member of Shelby Volunteer Fire Company and operator of Lyons Collision and Towing, Jeff Lyons has seen the need for special extrication equipment.
Many times he has responded to accidents involving motor vehicles or heavy equipment, as a volunteer firefighter or on a towing call, when someone was trapped and special equipment was needed.
“Getting involved in the fire department and being a tow truck operator go hand in hand,” Lyons said.
As a result, he has started a new business, Genesis Rescue Systems, to provide a local source of extrication equipment.
This includes Genesis tools, such as cutters, stabilization devices, jacks and lift/air bags.
When the fire company sent Lyons and several other firefighters to Crash Course Village in Dayton, Ohio, Lyons took every course offered relating to extrication in MVAs and heavy equipment, he said. The course was sponsored by Howell Rescue Systems and owner Todd Howell was very helpful, Lyons said.
Lyons Collision was started in 1978 by Jeff’s dad, Ancel. He added the towing service a year later. At that time, he had the only flatbed in the county.
Jeff has been involved since 1985, when he would come to the shop after school and work in the body shop. He started working full-time at the business in December 1987. His sister Kim Patterson runs the office and Jeff Stockwell runs the body shop. Jeff’s great-niece Elexa Murphy also works in the office. Ancel is officially retired, but is still there every day, Jeff said.
The business has expanded several times over the years, having bought the former Al Nudd’s garage at Orient and East Center Street in 2010, which they converted into the office. In 2012, they bought Russo’s Granite building and now own the entire complex from East Center Street to the railroad.
The new business represents a considerable investment, but one Jeff believes is much needed and well worth it.
Photos by Tom Rivers: Tim Cooper, left, sold Cooper Funeral Home last month to Jacob Hebdon, who has worked alongside Cooper as a funeral director since 2007.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 17 January 2019 at 9:16 am
Jacob Hebdon has worked with Tim Cooper since 2007
MEDINA – Cooper Funeral Home in Medina has a new owner who has been a steady presence at the site for the past dozen years.
Jacob Hebdon, 34, has worked as a funeral director alongside Tim Cooper since 2007. Cooper opened the funeral home at 215 West Center St. in 1987, when he was 26.
Cooper sold the business to Hebdon, with the deal closing on Dec. 27. The roles for the two have reversed with Cooper staying on as a funeral director and Hebdon’s employee.
Cooper said he wanted a reduced role. He also is confident the business is in good hands with Hebdon.
“We are lucky and Medina is lucky to have somebody with his talent and youthfulness who is staying in Medina and taking on the business,” Cooper said during an interview at the funeral home on Wednesday.
Hebdon has impressed Cooper over the years with his work ethic and commitment to the local families.
“He’s honest, he’s dedicated and he’s good with people,” Cooper said.
Jake Hebdon is shown on the second floor on the funeral home with a display of urns.
Hebdon was an architecture major at the University of Buffalo when he got a part-time job parking cars for a funeral home in Buffalo. That job led to a fascination and deep respect for the work at funeral homes. He switched his career path and graduated in 2006 from Simmons Institute of Funeral Service in Syracuse. He sent out letters to funeral homes in Western New York, seeking a job. Cooper gave him a call and the two have forged a strong working relationship.
“We’re a team,” Hebdon said. “We work in sync.”
Cooper appreciates the history of Medina and has a display of the hearse plates from the Gulinski, Thibault and Cleary funeral homes, which served the Medina community.
Hebdon grew up in the Batavia/Alexander area, and graduated from Alexander in 2003. He moved to Medina in 2007 and has been impressed with the community’s comeback, especially in the downtown area. He sees many people his own age running businesses and involved in pushing the community forward.
“I have lived here and been a funeral director in the Medina community since 2007 and have had the privilege of getting to know many families and to make personal bonds,” Hebdon said. “I am incredibly proud to call myself a part of such a vibrant and warm community. Medina is my home.”
When Cooper started the funeral home, there were four others in Medina. Now there are two. Cooper has a display at the funeral home, honoring the other sites that have since closed. The hearse plates for Gulinski, Thibault and Cleary funeral homes are prominently on display at Cooper.
Hebdon said Tim Cooper built a successful business, and has cared for a beautiful Medina Sandstone building, turning what was a doctor’s office with four apartments into the funeral home.
“I am excited and honored to continue the legacy that Tim has built here at Cooper Funeral Home,” Hebdon said. “I have learned a tremendous amount from him over the years and consider myself lucky to have had him as a mentor. I look forward to continuing the level of professionalism and compassion that we have had when caring for families in their time of need.”
Hebdon is a member of the National Funeral Directors Association, Erie Niagara Funeral Directors Association and the Medina Business Association. The Cooper Funeral Home serves Orleans and eastern Niagara counties, and offers many funeral and cremation options.
“I am very privileged and honored to be able to do what I do for a living,” Hebdon said. “This is not just a job for me. It is what drives me, it is my passion, my life. I find great gratitude in what I do, knowing you can be the person for a family to lean on in their time of grief.”
Jake Hebdon and Tim Cooper are pictured in a gathering room. There are many Medina school yearbooks between them on the display case. C.H. Thomas M.D. used to have a doctor’s office at the site before it was a funeral home. The big picture behind Hebdon and Cooper shows some of Cooper’s family members when they operated a store on West Center Street in the late 1800s.
Hebdon and Cooper are both unusual in that they pursued being funeral directors even though the business wasn’t in their family. Cooper became interested in funeral homes while mowing the grass and doing yard work for a funeral home in Medina when he was a teen-ager.
Hebdon said his parents both have demonstrated a hard work ethic and commitment to caring for others. His mother Lori was a registered nurse in the maternity ward at United Memorial Medical Center in Batavia and his father, Jodi, worked as a Genesee County Deputy Sheriff.
“They instilled in me a hard work ethic and sense of gratitude and fulfillment being able to help others,” Hebdon said. “Being the person for families to lean on during their time of grief, paying tribute to lives well lived, helping honor veterans who bravely served our nation, leaves me incredibly humbled and deeply honored.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 14 January 2019 at 10:31 am
MEDINA – The Village of Medina is hosting a public discussion and interactive session on Wednesday about the future of waterfront sites in Medina.
The Wednesday meeting on “Reimagining Our Waterfront” will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Medina United Methodist Church, the former Apple Grove at 11004 West Center St.
Community leaders welcome feedback from residents about how to better utilize the Erie Canal, Oak Orchard Creek and Glenwood Lake. The public is welcome to share ideas and visionary projects for Medina.
A committee has been working on a waterfront plan for Medina. The village has sizable open spaces near the canal, Glenwood Lake and the Oak Orchard.
The Village of Medina has initiated a Local Waterfront Revitalization Program to better utilize the waterfront for economic development, recreation and tourism.
The village received a state grant to cover most of the cost of the project to develop the waterfront program. That plan is expected to be finished in mid-2019, in time for Medina to apply for funding for state grants.
Some of the committee members see improved public access to the Medina Waterfalls as a top priority. Those waterfalls are currently dangerous for the public to access. The waterfalls are visible from the towpath by the canal, but a better vantage point could make the falls a bigger attraction for Medina.
The group also said the waterfront plan should include more amenities by the Canal Basin, including more lighting to make the area feel safer in the evening and at night.
The waterfront plan also can offer ways to better connect Medina’s downtown and some of the other historic sites in the community to the waterfront. Some committee members say a better developed trail system, linking the waterfront assets, should be developed.
Specifically, residents and committee members at a recent meeting noted projects that would boost Medina could include a brewery in the Canal Basin, a community center in Medina, and more backside facades such as the one at Fitzgibbons Public House that faces the canal.
Photos by Tom Rivers: Alissa Blount, Medina’s student representative on the Board of Education, is pictured outside Medina High School. The BOE has an ex-officio student member for the first time this school year.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 January 2019 at 10:50 am
MEDINA – The Medina Board of Education for the first time has a student representative, who gives a monthly report and weighs in on topics from a student perspective.
District residents during the May 15 school vote last year approved, 259-75, to have a student on the Board of Education, without voting privileges. The student isn’t allowed in executive session where the board discusses personnel and litigation. Medina will have a student on a trial basis for two years, and then can extend it after that.
Alissa Blount, the High School Student Association president, was picked by the district to serve as the first student representative on the BOE. Cora Payne, a senior and the FFA president, is an alternate for meetings when Blount is unable to attend.
David Sevenski, the BOE president, welcomes having a student sitting at the table with the board during the monthly meetings.
“We’re trying to get more information about what’s going on in the schools,” Sevenski said.
He has encouraged board members to be an active presence at the school, from taking tours during the school day to attending many after-school events.
Cora Payne, an alternate student rep on the Board of Education, speaks during a Dec. 18 BOE meeting. Marc Graff, the district’s business administrator, listens to her comments.
Mark Kruzynski, the district superintendent, also pushed for a student rep on the board. Medina is the first district in Orleans County with a student on the board.
“It’s a natural way to get a student focus,” Kruzynski said.
Payne filled in for Blount at the Dec. 18 BOE meeting. She gave an update about holiday concerts, the FFA citrus sale and some other activities. She urged board members to attend concerts, sporting events and other school programs. She encouraged them “to be more visible” at the school.
Payne plans to major in journalism and political science at Boston University. She attended a meeting last year about a change in the school’s policy for tardiness. That initially raised her interest in the Board of Education and school policy.
She praised the district for having a student on the BOE.
“I appreciate that they valued my opinion,” she said.
Alissa Blount has only missed one meeting so far this school year. She gives a report each month, and also extends an invitation for the BOE to go to school activities.
Blount is also a member of the FFA. She spoke about the FFA’s model farm on the school campus during a recent meeting. That prompted other board members to request a tour of the farm, and Blount was happy to oblige.
Most of the board meetings are about 45 to 90 minutes. Blount said it has been interesting to see the decision-making process, and how the board and administration wrestle with so many details in discussing policies.
“It takes a lot longer to get things passed,” she said.
Blount plans to major in nursing with a minor in Spanish at Daemen College near Buffalo. She said she is feeling more comfortable at the board meetings as she learns more about the district’s inner-workings.
She said she would like to help mentor next year’s student representative so that student can join the board with a better understanding of how the board functions and some background on the issues.
“It’s been really positive so far and it will build in the future,” Blount said.
By Ginny Kropf, correspondent Posted 8 January 2019 at 5:45 pm
Photos by Ginny Kropf
MEDINA – A crane lifts a rafter today for the new Calvary Tabernacle Assembly of God building on Maple Ridge Road in Medina.
The church is working on a new 9,306-square-foot building. It is moving from the former Medina High School, where it has been based the past 25 years. The building on Maple Ridge is near Salt Works Road.
Photos by Tom Rivers: Adam and Kelly Uderitz take their dog Maggie for a walk by the Erie Canal in Ridgeway on Fruit Avenue.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 6 January 2019 at 1:53 pm
Adam and Kelly Uderitz embrace a healthy lifestyle
Provided photo: Adam and Kelly Uderitz are shown at their wedding about 16 months ago on Aug. 17, 2017.
MEDINA – A Medina couple embraced a healthy lifestyle last year and the results have been life-changing, Kelly and Adam Uderitz said.
Together they lost about 340 pounds in 2018. They drank lots of water each day, ate healthy foods, got more sleep and made a commitment to exercise regularly.
Kelly lost 96 pounds and Adam took off 245. They used to get home from work and crash on the couch. Now they go out for walks or a jog.
They both say they have far more energy during the day, after cutting out their caffeine.
“I feel like I got my freedom back, the freedom from myself,” Adam, 43, said at their home on Saturday on Fruit Avenue.
He used to drink a lot of soda. The switch to drinking water cut out hundreds of calories each day. He has experimented in the kitchen, using more vegetables in their meals. He makes a cauliflower-crusted pizza, or mashed cauliflowers instead of mashed potatoes. On Saturday evening, it was scallops over cauliflower grits.
The change in diet took off a lot of pounds. Adam also embraced something he hadn’t done since he was a kid: he rode a bike. He first pedaled it down Fruit Avenue to the canal and back to his house, about a 3-mile ride. He built up his endurance and would ride 25 miles to Albion and back.
He started walking, then doing a walk-jog. In October, he was running a mile and then longer. In November, he completed two 5-kilometer races and is looking to try some longer races, a 5-miler and maybe a half marathon. Adam is often joined by the family dog, Maggie, a mixed breed.
Adam is at 176 pounds. He hasn’t been that low since he was a freshman in high school. Some of his own family members didn’t recognize him last year at some family gatherings.
Adam and Kelly Uderitz frequently take walks on the Erie Canal Towpath with their dog Maggie.
“I just feel so much better,” he said on Saturday.
He works at Saint-Gobain Adfors in Albion as a “fixer” or in maintenance. He used to sit down for most of his shifts at work, but last year decided to stay on his feet throughout the workday. That gave him about 10,000 steps each day at work. He has a step counter on his watch and averages about 15,000 steps a day, including his exercise outside of work.
Adam no longer needs medication for high cholesterol and blood pressure. He no longer suffers from sleep apnea. He gets a good night’s sleep and starts the day with zest.
Kelly and Adam have been friends for 16 years. They married on Aug. 17, 2017.
Kelly has lost nearly 100 pounds this year. She has steered herself away from deep-fried foods. If she goes out to eat, she has a salad instead of French fries or other food that tends to have a lot of grease.
Kelly, 44, said she started to put on weight after quitting smoking in 2000. Before embracing a healthy lifestyle about a year ago, she said she typically felt tired and would go to Tim Hortons once or twice daily for an iced cappuccino. Even then, she felt sluggish, especially when she got home after working. She is a special education teacher at Albion High School.
Kelly is an active parent volunteer with the Medina Mustang Band. Her son, Danny Squire, is a senior with the band this year.
His mother noticed that Jimmy Steele, the band director, has lost a lot of weight – more than 100 pounds. She asked him how he did it.
Steele shared his insights and offered to be a coach for Kelly and Adam Uderitz. He gives them recipes and encouragement.
Kelly and Adam both say they try to stay positive, even if they slip up and don’t have a good eating day.
“If you have a bad day, it’s not over,” Adam said. “Go forward and continue on.”
It is hard to eat good food all the time, especially during the holidays when there are some many cookies and treats.
The couple say Americans are inundated with junk food, fast food and unhealthy food.
“It’s always in your face,” Kelly said. “Everyone is trying to get you to supersize junk all your life.”
‘I feel like anyone can be successful. You have to remember why you’re doing it. It’s a journey not a diet.’ – Kelly Uderitz
Kelly and Adam try to eat every 2 ½ to 3 hours. In between meals that is often a handful of almonds. That fights off hunger and the cravings for fast food or junk food.
“It keeps the metabolism going,” Adam said.
The first couple months on the program were like being in detox as he shifted from soda to water, and from deep fried food to lean meats and lots of vegetables.
Kelly, like Steele, has become a health coach and is working with five people. She welcomes others to contact her through her Facebook page if they are interested in following the program that has worked for her and her husband.
Adam and Kelly have also become avid kayakers. That’s something that seemed unrealistic a year ago. Now they spend three or four hours in the kayak, traveling the Oak Orchard River.
“I feel like anyone can be successful,” Kelly said about the weight-loss program. “You have to remember why you’re doing it. It’s a journey not a diet.”
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 3 January 2019 at 4:24 pm
File photo by Tom Rivers: The Medina Board of Education last August approved selling Towne Primary School for $900,000 to Rainbow CCX International, a company that provides educational services.
MEDINA – The Medina School District has announced this afternoon that the sale of the Towne Primary School is complete.
The Board of Education on Aug. 15, 2017 accepted an offer of $900,000 on the building by Rainbow CCX, Inc.
“The new company that owns Towne School is a Chinese-based educational firm, that has stated that they intend to develop the school into an international school for students from China, with students ultimately living on the campus,” Mark Kruzynski, the district superintendent, said in a statement today.
Towne Primary School has been vacant since July 2012, when the district closed the school to consolidate and reconfigure the buildings on the current campus.
“On December 28, 2018, after all of the bureaucratic regulations and legal obligations were met, the ownership of the building officially transferred to Rainbow CCX, Inc.,” Kruzynski said.
Rainbow CCX has schools in Toronto and Niagara Falls, Canada.
The Towne school is 72,814 square feet and the property includes a 16.9-acre lot. The school district had it listed for $1,150,000. The CCX offer was significantly more than what was presented by the Calvary Tabernacle Church, school officials said in August 2017.
When the district accepted the CCX offer, Medina still owed about $1.2 million from Towne for a capital project at the building. The sale price will wipe out most of that debt. Medina also will be spared paying about $50,000 in annual maintenance and insurance at the site.
The property will go on the tax rolls and would have stayed tax exempt if purchased by the church.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 31 December 2018 at 9:59 am
Photo from Woody Candy, a new Buffalo-based 1950’s rock and roll/rockabilly band.
MEDINA – The Lee-Whedon Memorial Library will kick off its winter concert series – Finally Fridays – this Friday at 7 p.m. The 10-week concert series continues until March 8.
The series doesn’t charge for admission. Lee-Whedon started Finally Fridays in January 2002 and is very popular with Medina residents as well as residents in neighboring communities, said Catherine Cooper, the library director.
“We look forward to greeting all of our music-loving friends on January 4th,” she said. “This will be our eighteenth year, believe it or not. We provide a unique opportunity for people to sit and enjoy live music and for musicians to play to an attentive and focused audience.”
Wood Candy, a new Buffalo-based 1950’s rock and roll/rockabilly band fronted by Buffalo singer-songwriter Rob Falgiano, will start the series on Friday. The 5-piece group (guitar/bass/drums/piano/sax) performs a fun, up tempo mix of Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Ray Charles, and Jerry Lee Lewis, among other era luminaries.
The full schedule includes:
• January 4 – Wood Candy
• January 11 – Creek Bend Bluegrass
• January 18 – The Red Blazer Men’s Chorus
• January 25 – Tom Stahl & the Dangerfields
• February 1 – Dave North & Marc Loan
• February 8 – “A” Blues Band
• February 15 – Corfu Community Band
• February 22 – Paul Zittle & Pure Country
• March 1 – Crash Cadillac
• March 8 – Ron & Nancy One Song
Finally Fridays! is made possible by funding from the New York State Council on the Arts. The musical series is also co-sponsored by The Friends of the Library.
Photos courtesy of Orleans United Drug Free Communities Coalition
MEDINA – The Orleans United Drug Free Communities Coalition held a free family roller skating event on Thursday afternoon at the Orleans County YMCA in Medina.
There were over 250 youth and parents who attended what has become an annual event just after Christmas.
This year a Hawaiian Luau theme was included in the event with prizes awarded to youth who dressed up Hawaiian. Youth could also have some fun at the free photo booth with Hawaiian props included.
Volunteers from Medina Area Association of Churches attended and helped collect a total of 225 non-perishable food items from attendees to donate to the two food pantries in Medina.
New this year, participants also had the opportunity to watch a showing of the Disney movie “Moana” during the event sponsored by Tobacco Free GLOW.
The Orleans United Drug Free Communities Coalition said the event would not be been possible without the support of Medina Area Association of Churches, Orleans YMCA and Tobacco Free GLOW.
