Lois McClure schooner has been delayed by closed canal

Courtesy of Lake Champlain Maritime Museum

MEDINA – The Medina Tourism Coomittee has been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the Lois McClure this summer, but closed sections of the canal have delayed the sailboat.

The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, owners of the boat, announced an updated schedule for Lois McClure today and Medina is listed as a stop on Aug. 8. The boat will pass east through Orleans before staying in Brockport on Aug. 9.

Lois McClure is like a floating museum. The schooner is a full-scale replica of an 1862-class sailing canal boat, constructed by the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vermont and launched in 2004.

The boat has done many tours along the interconnected waterways of New York, Vermont and Quebec. Lois McClure is modeled after two 1862-class canal schooners sunk in Lake Champlain, the General Butler and the OJ Walker.

Launched in 2004, Lois McClure serves as a regional ambassador promoting the shared heritage of Quebecois, Vermonters and New Yorkers. The schooner is named in honor of Lois McClure, who, along with her husband Mac, has been a major contributor to the sailboat and other worthy community projects in the greater Burlington, Vermont area.

For more on the boat and its schedule, click here.

Photo by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – Jerry Lewis and other Medina firefighters spent eight hours in the blazing sun today raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Lewis is pictured on Main Street, near Rotary Park.

Press release, Medina Fire Department

MEDINA – Firefighters will be at the intersection of Main and Center streets on Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., passing the boot to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Medina firefighters have participated in the MDA fund-raiser for the past few years. Motorists are welcome to donate some of their spare change and dollars to support the MDA.

Photo by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – Matthew Witte, a Medina DPW summer worker, waters flowers on Main Street this morning. Witte and the DPW are making sure the flowers and trees in the downtown get enough water during this week’s heat wave.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Lissa Stewart-Jones, left, and Lori Brien opened The Bread Basket in Medina on Monday.

MEDINA – Two friends since the third grade have joined together to pursue a life-long passion: baking and Medina.

Lissa Stewart-Jones and Lori Brien, both accountants, on Monday opened The Bread Basket at 513 Main St., the site of Reigle’s Market.

The Bread Basket continues to offer produce from the Reigle family farm and has kept many of their popular baked goods, especially the cinnamon rolls.

“We liked them and everybody else liked them,” Stewart-Jones said about the rolls. “Little by little we will add our own recipes.”

They praised the Reigle family for showing the site can be a success as a bakery with fresh produce. Some of the Reigle fruit and vegetables will be used in the baked goods, including blueberry streusel that was available today.

The Reigles closed in June so the family could follow their full-time passion: farming.

Stewart-Jones and Brien saw an opportunity to keep the business going. They are among the first to open on the street each morning. They arrive at 5:30 a.m. and open the doors at 7:30. They will stay open to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 3 p.m. on Saturdays.

They are pleased to be part of a vibrant Main Street and downtown business district.

“Medina is in a good place right now with this charming downtown,” Brien said. “We’re just happy to be a part of it.”

The two business partners want to put an awning on the building and add outdoor seating.

They will have a grand opening on July 27, offering free coffee and tastings of the baked goods.

Company captured CO2 in ethanol production

MEDINA – A company that captures CO2 discharged in the production of ethanol has been sold.

EPCO Carbon Dioxide Products has had a presence in Medina for about five years. The company set up a plant to capture CO2 from Western New York Energy’s plant in Medina. The captured CO2 has been sold to food companies. EPCO owned 12 CO2 purification and liquefaction plants.

EPCO last month was bought by Air Products, a publicly traded company. EPCO is based in Monroe, La. The acquisition also includes Louisiana Leasing, Ltd. of Illinois, an affiliated company that owns liquid CO2 distribution assets that are solely leased to EPCO. Air Products said the acquisition vaults the company among the leaders in the North American liquid CO2 market.

“We are pleased to be acquiring a company that demonstrated continued growth through the economic challenges of the past several years,” said Nelson Squires, vice president and general manager – North America Merchant Gases at Air Products. “EPCO’s geographic footprint overlaps nicely with our existing infrastructure such that we expect both cost and revenue synergy benefits.”

Air Products currently serves with other merchant industrial gases including the food, beverage, chemical, pharmaceutical, oil field services, and metals fabrication markets.

Air Products employs more than 20,000 people in 50 countries. In fiscal 2012, Air Products had sales approaching $10 billion. For more information about Air Products, click here.

Provided photo – Baxter Healthcare employees, from left, Rich Johnson, Steve Crane, Rod Johnson and Vice President Nelson Patterson accept their prizes and thanks from Marsha Rivers, Hospice development director.

Press release
Hospice of Orleans

LYNDONVILLE/MEDINA Deep waters and a swift current resulted in a break-neck Ducks Ahoy Race to benefit Hospice of Orleans on July 4^th.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen the creek this high for the Duck Race,” said John Denniston of Albion, a Hospice volunteer who dons his wading trousers each year to retrieve the winners from the pool-noodle race track constructed and set by Lyndonville DPW employees, headed by Terry Woodworth.

More than 2,000 weighted plastic ducks of various colors floated to the finish line in Johnson’s Creek in what has become a favorite tradition of the Lyndonville Lions’ Independence Day celebration.

Hospice extends hearty appreciation to the Lions, the Village staff, and to all the Hospice volunteers who make the Duck Race such a success.Special recognition is due to Baxter Healthcare International of Medina for their very generous underwriting of the prizes.

In the end, it was Baxter employee Rich Johnson’s blue waterfowl winning the top prize of $500 by three duck-lengths. Thanks to everyone who bought tickets. See you next year for another riveting race!

Congratulations to the winners (including a pair of brothers and a double winner): Rich Johnson – $500, Jim Stelianou – $300, Mary Miesner – $200, Mary Miesner – $150, Don and JoAnn Melfi – $125, Rod Johnson – $100, Steve Crane – $75, and Rebekah Karls – $50.

Baseball star runs clinic before talk tonight at Grace Baptist

Photos by Tom Rivers

Bernie Carbo ran a hitting clinic for about 40 kids this afternoon at Butts Park in Medina.

MEDINA – Bernie Carbo and Pastor Dickson Beam didn’t know what to expect when they arrived at Butts Park in Medina this afternoon for a baseball clinic.

Carbo, a retired Major League Baseball player, has led hitting clinics in communities before. He typically has about 10 to 20 kids show up.

Today, about 40 kids came to the clinic and most were joined by their parents and grandparents. Carbo needed three fields to run the clinic.

“The pastor did a great job,” Carbo said about Beam, the leader of Grace Baptist Church on Park Avenue. “I’m delighted to see so many parents and grandparents out here working with the kids.”

Carbo, a star of the 1975 World Series with the Red Sox, spent two hours in the hot sun with the kids, telling them to keep their front shoulder down and front arm in when they get ready to swing. He warned against keeping the elbows up too high, something players are taught when they are kids. Carbo thinks that makes it harder to hit, and messes with a player’s balance.

Carbo said it’s more important to keep the hands loose, holding the bat with the fingers and not in the palms of the hand.

“Step and pivot,” he called to the kids, some as young as 5.

Carbo wraps up the clinic by addressing the players, urging them to be positive on the field and not worry about making outs.

Bernie Carbo, a former Major League Baseball star, signed bats, gloves and books for children and their parents after today’s hitting clinic.

Carbo runs a baseball camp near Mobile, Ala. During the summer he travels, teaching baseball fundamentals and preaching, sharing his personal story of overcoming drug and alcohol addiction after he became a Christian 20 years ago.

Carbo praised the Medina community for the turnout at the clinic.

“There were fathers and mothers here working with their kids,” he said. “There were grandparents here. We want to build those relationships.”

He told them to “edify and build up” the children. He warned against yelling at players.

“If you’re going to say something, tell them that you love them,” he said. “Tell them it’s OK to make outs.”

Carbo, 65, will speak at Grace Baptist Church on Park Avenue at 7 p.m. today.

Bernie Carbo will lead a free hitting clinic at Butts Park

Photos courtesy of BernieCarbo.com – Bernie Carbo is best remembered for hitting a game-tying pinch hit home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series.

MEDINA – Bernie Carbo remains a legend to Boston Red Sox fans nearly four decades after hitting a dramatic home run to tie Game 6 of World Series.

He crushed a pinch-hit home run to tie the game against the Cincinnati Reds in 1975. Carlton Fisk would win the game for the Red Sox with a home run a few innings later.

Carbo was 28 when he hit that famous three-run home run. He also was a drug addict.

Twenty years ago he said he turned his life around, finally giving up drugs when he became a Christian. Carbo will share his Christian testimony, and also offer some hitting tips during a visit in Medina tomorrow.

“I’m hoping to reach the kids, teach some basic fundamentals of hitting and invite some into church,” Carbo said by phone today.

He will run a free hitting clinic from 3 to 5 p.m. at Butts Park on South Main Street. He will then speak at Grace Baptist Church at 7 p.m. The church is located at 120 Park Ave.

He also will be signing his book, Saving Bernie Carbo. The book will be for sale for $20.

Bernie Carbo leads hitting clinics and shares a Christian message as part of his ministry.

Dickson Beam is pastor of Grace Baptist. He also grew up in New England and remains “a diehard Red Sox fan.” He said Carbo brings a powerful message about overcoming addictions through the power of Jesus Christ.

“My journey has been a rough one,” Carbo said. “But I want to share hope, that in whatever circumstances life can change.”

Carbo played in the Major Leagues for 12 years and was Rookie of the Year in 1970 for the Cincinnati Reds. He also played for the St. Louis Cardinals, Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Indians and Pittsburgh Pirates.

He runs Diamond Club Ministry, traveling the country to speak at churches, prisons, youth detention facilities and camps.

“We’re just spreading the news and sharing the love of Jesus,” he said.

Photo by Tom Rivers – Lyons Collision in Medina donated a Hurst tool or a Jaws of Life to the Medina Fire Department. Pictured outside the fire hall today include, from left: Fire Chief Todd Zinkievich, Lyons co-owner Jeff Lyons, Lyons co-owner Kim Patterson and firefighter Craig Basinait.

MEDINA – Jeff Lyons has watched Medina firefighters use hand tools and saws to try to rip off car doors. It can be a slow process. And Lyons, a Shelby firefighter, said seconds and minutes count for patients in motor vehicle accidents.

Lyons is co-owner of Lyons Collision in Medina. He is often on the scene soon after a car accident.

The Lyons family has donated a Hurst or Jaws of Life tool to the Medina FD. The Jaws can easily pry open a door or cut off pieces of metal. It makes it quicker for firefighters to extract a patient, and also exposes the patients  to less jarring, noise and vibration.

“It’s the most valuable tool you can have at an MVA,” said Todd Zinkievich, the Medina fire chief.

Medina was the last fire department in the county without a Jaws, the chief said. Medina would often call a neighboring fire company to bring one of the tools, which could take 10 minutes of more.

“It’s designed to open up the doors and free the patients,” Lyons said. “It’s a much smoother way of opening up the car.”

Lyons, his sister Kim Patterson and their father Ancel Lyons decided to donate the Jaws, which can top $15,000 new. The family bought a used one for the fire department.

“We couldn’t do what we do with our business without them,” Jeff Lyons said about the firefighters. “The community has made our business what it is and this is a way to say thanks.”