MEDINA – The Rotary Club of Medina installed new officers at the July 11 meeting. Officers will serve July 1, 2018 thru June 30, 2019 which is the Rotary fiscal year.
Officers include, from left: Jennifer Hill-Young, Secretary/Treasurer; Carl Tuohey, President; and Gary Lawton, Vice President. Tuohey succeeds Bill Bixler, who served as president for several years.
Club Directors include Carl Tuohey, President & Membership Director; Julianna Duda, Public Relations; Jennifer Hill-Young, Secretary/Treasurer; Edee Hoffmeister, Service Projects Director; and Gary Lawton, Vice President.
The Rotary Club of Medina has a charter dated 1923 and has been supporting their community for 95 years. If you’d like to hear more about Medina Rotary, regular meetings are held the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays at the United Methodist Church on Center Street at the former Apple Grove.
MEDINA – Medina’s Class of 1978 gathered for its 40-year reunion. There were 60 members of the class for a reunion celebration on Saturday at the Knights of Columbus.
The classmates came from Washington, California, Nevada, Colorado, Florida, Tennesee, South Carolina, Virginia and New York.
“We had a fun-packed weekend with a Friday Night Mixer at the Sacred Heart, Saturday events of wine tasting at Leonard Oakes Winery and a walking tour of Medina given by our own Chris Busch, and capping of our weekend with dinner and dancing at the KOC,” said Connie Eick Holt, vice president of the class.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 22 July 2018 at 8:15 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – Woody and Friends performs on Saturday during the Canal Village Farmers’ Market at 127 West Center St.
The market is open every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and includes many local farmers. There are also musicians, artists and other demonstrations at the market.
Tom Zangerle, an artist from Medina, had some of his paintings and prints for sale on Saturday.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 21 July 2018 at 9:02 pm
Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – Addison Jaczynski, 5, of Albion is dressed as a fairy for Medina’s first-time “Enchanted Faery Village Festival” today.
The event was organized by the Medina Business Association and included a scavenger hunt, costume contest, craft and art vendors, fairy door-decorating contest and other activities.
Kathy Blackburn, vice president of the Medina Business Association, dressed up for the event. She welcomed people to the tourism booth at Rotary Park. (The MBA spelled “Faery” in the Celtic style.)
Blackburn was pleased many businesses participated in the event with fairy gardens, fairy tales, fairy stickers, face painting, temporary tattoos, fairy wands, fairy crowns and other treats.
“Next year will be bigger,” Blackburn said.
Photo courtesy of Kathy Blackburn: Faery Royalty were also crowned for the festival. From left include: Woodland Baby Fairy – Neva Regling of Medina; Princess Fairy – Chloe Luxon of Medina; Queen Fairy – Anna Geldard of Albion; and Prince Fairy – Bright Hapeman of Medina.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 21 July 2018 at 5:09 pm
Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – A historical marker was unveiled this morning in Medina for Gulf Street Park. Pictured from left include Ron Stork, Don Sloper and Mayor Mike Sidari.
Stork and his wife Cherie pushed to have the marker installed. They wanted to recognized three World War II veterans who returned home in 1945 and worked with neighborhood kids to create the park.
Children used to play in the street before the WWII veterans – Pepper Santillo, John Santillo and Chester Kwiatkowski – worked with the local kids to clear out a field that was overgrown with brush and weeds.
“They did it to have a park so the kids could have a safe place to play,” Stork said.
They used axes and trimmers to remove small trees and brush. They also had to move rocks. They neighborhood kids who helped included Tony Kwiatkowski, Jack Parada, Frank Stack, Walter Stack, Frank Bunchuck, Greg Pope, Bernie Dujenski, Dell Stork and Sam Santillo.
Dell Stork, the last survivor of the group, is now 86. He shared the history with his son Ron, who wanted to immortalize the efforts of the group in making the park, which is located at 141 Stork Street.
“It’s a very interesting history,” Mayor Mike Sidari said. “The World War II veterans did their service over there, they came home and they did a service for the community.”
The kids set up a baseball field at the park and their team was known as “The Rock Street Gang.” The played other teams in Medina. They were typically neighborhood games, and the teams didn’t have uniforms.
The Gulf Street Park is just north of the original Ryan quarry, the first commercial Medina sandstone quarry (just north of the Erie Canal by the lift bridge). Sandstone is prominent not too far under the grass.
This group includes, from left: Bill Lewandowski, Ed Washak, Frank Lewandowski, Cherie Stork, Ron Stork and Ron Washak. The Lewandowskis and Washaks were part of the second generation of kids that made the park bigger and also helped with its maintenance.
A second generation of kids helped to widen and care for the field in the 1940s and ’50s, including Chester Maryjankowski, Joe Maryjankowski, Rocco Pope, Don Bloom, Tony Bielak, Tony Parada, Ed Parada, Walter Lewandowski, Bill Lewandowski, Frank Lewandowski, Edwin Washak, Ed Johnson, Eugene Wanecski, Ron Washak, Bernie Parada and Frank Mencelwicz.
In the late 1960s, some of the residents had bake sales to buy playground equipment. The park is owned by the Village of Medina.
Mayor Sidari said new playground equipment geared for children ages 2 to 5 is coming for State Street Park and ages 5 to 12 for Butts Park. The village would like to upgrade more playground equipment in the future, he said.
Ron Stork, center, wanted to recognize the efforts of the World War II veterans and local kids in creating the park.
Provided photos: Joan “Jo” Payjack Forrestel, right, poses with her sister Bonnie Hartway of Medina, seated left, and daughter Libby Naylor at The Book Shoppe in Medina, where copies of Forrestel’s book are being sold. The book An American Thread is the true story of Jo’s and her husband Tom’s sailing voyage across the Atlantic and his tragic, unexpected death aboard ship.
By Ginny Kropf, correspondent
MEDINA – A Medina native has written a book on her family’s sailing adventure crossing the Atlantic in 1976 and her husband’s subsequent death aboard ship in Europe.
Joan “Jo” Forrestel will be at The Book Shoppe from 10 a.m. to noon on Aug. 4 to sign copies of her autobiography, An American Thread: A Sailing Family’s Adventure, in which she recalls a seafaring voyage half way round the world, some of it told in her late husband’s diary.
Jo was born in Medina, a daughter of the late Frank and Laurita Payjack. She met Tom Forrestel in 1949 when he came into Payjack Chevrolet, where she worked as a bookkeeper.
“We took one look at each other and our fate was sealed,” Jo wrote in her book.
She was already engaged to another man, but when Tom asked her to go to a circus with him, she accepted because, as she explained, “A circus wasn’t a real date.”
The second time Tom asked her out, she broke off her engagement, and she and Tom were married six months later.
Jo’s daughter Libby Naylor wrote an introduction to the book, in which she describes her mother as a strong and courageous woman, qualities she comes by honestly.
“She comes from a long line of remarkable women from Western New York,” Naylor said.
These include her mother, her grandmother Elsie Miles and her great-great-great-grandmother Bathshua Brown, who according to family history saved the area from English occupation during the War of 1812.
Jo gave birth to 10 daughters in 13 1/2 years, one of whom, Abigail, died at 3 months.
“That alone elevates her to strong and courageous status, but there is much more to her story,” Naylor said.
Tom and his brother Richard had taken over their father’s business, Cold Spring Construction, and during the busy summers they would rent a cottage at whatever small lake they were near.
Both Jo and Tom had grown up sailing. Jo grew up on Lake Ontario near Shadigee, while Tom spent his first 15 summers at a small lake north of Hornell called Loon Lake.
While building a road near Java in Wyoming County, the family discovered a small lake near Cuba with an active yacht club. There, they learned about sailing and bought their first boat, a Snipe, which they raced every weekend.
“It was a common sight for me to be nursing the baby on our dock between races,” Jo wrote.
It wasn’t long before they graduated to sailing a Morgan 41’ boat out of Point Breeze.
Tom was insistent all the family learned how to sail.
“He would make us practice ‘man overboard’ drills,” Naylor said. “He would dive overboard and we had to rescue him.”
Then came the night in 1972 when Tom came home from a Medina School Board meeting and announced, “Jo, I would like to sail across the Atlantic.”
Jo was not surprised, she said, and began the enormous task of planning.
They contacted boatbuilders in Clearwater, Fla., and ordered a 51-foot sailboat they named “Liberty.”
Tom and Joan Forrestel raised nine daughters at their home in Shelby Center before setting sail to cross the Atlantic in their boat “Liberty.” From left front are Francy, Patty, Amy and Teresa. At rear are Susy, Joesy, Margaret, Libby and Katy.
Susy and Teresa were in college and Francy, Patty and Amy were out of school and working. But that left four children at home, Margaret, Katy and Josey in junior high and high school, and Libby in elementary school. Leaving them behind was not an option, Jo said.
They eventually signed the girls up for correspondence courses.
At that time, there was no GPS and reckoning was done solely by celestial navigation, which both Tom and Jo learned.
“That was a time when the high seas had to be sailed relying on wit and wisdom alone,” Naylor said.
By the end of 1975, all preparations for the voyage were complete and the family was ready to begin their journey. Tom had left the business in the hands of his nephew Steve Forrestel, and on Feb. 8, 1976, in a blizzard, the family departed Shelby Center for Clearwater and life aboard Liberty.
Shopping for food for the long journey was no small task. Canned goods had to be varnished so they didn’t rust. Jo learned to buy meat without bones, as bones took up too much room in their freezer onboard.
On Feb. 11, 1976, Liberty left Clearwater.
Naylor said they loved the boat.
“Mom and dad made it ‘home’,” she said.
On Sunday, June 27, the Liberty came within sight of Bishop’s Rock off Falmouth, England.
The next leg of their journey was crossing the English Channel to Holland.
From Brussels, they took the canal route to Paris, traveling through 34 locks in one day.
On Oct. 22, Liberty left the French canal system for the Mediterranean.
The family had decided to leave the Liberty in Italy and fly home for Christmas to spend a month with Jo’s mother in Medina.
Returning to life on the water, plans were made to head to Israel by way of Crete toward the end of February.
On March 10, they set sail from Malta.
Israel marked a turning point in their voyage, as from then on it was all westward and home, Jo wrote.
They headed toward Cyprus, then Rhodes, leaving there April 29 for Symi Island and Kos, where Hippocrates lived and taught. Next, they set sail for the Aegean Sea and Greece.
As the family prepared to leave Athens, little did they know how their life was about to change.
They had decided to go through the Corinth Canal, four miles long with 300-foot cliffs. But it saved them several days travel.
They sailed through the Ionian Sea, anchoring for the night at Levkas. They were invited for cocktails aboard a 100-foot yacht nearby, where they were greeted by Alexandre de Lesseps, a movie producer. He was a descendent of the man who built the Suez Canal, Jo said.
“We had such a good time, Tom invited them over for breakfast the next morning,” Jo said.
Later in the evening on the Liberty, Tom said to Libby, “Now I have seen just about everything I want to see. Maybe it is time to think about going home.”
The next morning around 5 a.m. Tom collapsed on the floor of their bedroom.
“My world came crashing down as I looked at him and knew he was gone,” Jo wrote.
Margaret took the dingy and went to the de Lesseps’ boat, which had a nurse onboard. Alexandre went ashore to find a doctor to pronounce Tom dead.
Tom’s brother Richard flew over to help with arrangements, and Jo made the decision to continue sailing Liberty home.
“Liberty had become our home,” Jo said.
Tom had insisted everyone learn an important area of the boat. Jo was at the helm during navigation, Margaret was in charge of the biggest sails, along with Libby. Katy and Libby were responsible for the engine room and Joesy took care of the anchor, winches, chain and ropes. Libby was in charge of the rigging and if something went wrong, she was always the one hoisted up to fix it. Everyone was trained to do an important task aboard Liberty.
“We were confident in our sailing because Tom had trained us all,” Jo wrote. “We depended on each other, and it was time to move on and continue with our adventure.”
Sailing away from Levkas, Jo said they felt Tom’s presence. He was the wind, the sky and the waves that swept them back out to sea, she said.
After completing the voyage, Jo said she now had to figure out where they would live.
Daughter Teresa was attending the University of Miami and they set sail for Miami. The found a house in Coconut Grove and a berth for Liberty in a canal one block from their home.
Jo and the girls continued to sail Liberty from Miami for many years. When the girls had family obligations and could no longer sail, Jo gave the boat to Dolphin Research and 10 years ago moved to Savannah, Ga., where she loves to golf.
Three years ago, she found Tom’s diary. Naylor started to type it so her sisters could have a copy, when Jo decided to write her book.
MEDINA – A fire in a dryer at the Washboard Willy’s Laundromat was put out by firefighters Tuesday morning, with minimal damage caused to the site at 117 Starr St., the Medina Fire Department said.
The Fire Department was dispatched to the scene at 8:33 a.m., along with the Shelby and Lyndonville fire departments.
Firefighters encountered heavy smoke conditions. They put out a small fire inside one of the dryers. Lyndonville’s FAST team was cancelled and Shelby firefighters assisted with ventilation of the structure.
“The cause was found to be rags that had previously been used to clean up kitchen grease prior to being washed and dried,” the Medina Fire Department said. “Residue oils not completely removed during the wash cycle, ignited inside the dryer as it was running. Damage was minimal, the fire was contained to the rags inside the dryer with slight scorching to the dryer drum.”
Courtesy of Calvary Tabernacle Assembly of God: The new church will be on Maple Ridge Road, about a quarter-mile west of Tops.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 17 July 2018 at 4:28 pm
Calvary Tabernacle hopes to be in new site by Easter
MEDINA – The Calvary Tabernacle Assembly of God will start construction of a new building next month on Maple Ridge Road.
Calvary will continue to hold its Sunday services at the old Medina High School until the new building is ready. Vince Iorio, the church’s pastor, is hopeful the new building will be done by Easter in April 2019.
Contractors will start site work next month. The frame of the 9,306-square-foot building should be up and enclosed by winter. Iorio said the interior work will occur during the winter and early spring.
The project will cost about $1 million. The church has raised $400,000 so far and is seeking more donations for the project. Click here for more information, including a video that shows the church’s ministries.
The old high school will be renovated into apartments by Roger Hungerford and Talis Equity. Calvary owned the old school for about 25 years.
Iorio said the new location has more visibility for Calvary. The site is on Maple Ridge Road, a quarter mile west of Tops on the north side of the road.
The church acquired the 36-acre lot about five years ago. The project includes 58 parking spaces.
Calvary offers the community many ministries, including a food pantry that serves more than 200 families a month, the Stillwaters Counseling Center with about 100 clients a month, and programs for youth.
SHELBY – A public hearing planned for Wednesday for a comprehensive plan in western Orleans County has been cancelled and will be rescheduled.
The hearing will give residents a chance to comment about a comprehensive plan for the towns of Shelby, Ridgeway and Yates and the villages of Medina and Lyndonville.
The plan covers a broad array of topics, including socioeconomic trends – housing; land use – zoning and development; infrastructure and utilities; environment; historic, cultural, and municipal resources; parks; open space and recreation; economic development; transportation; and sustainability.
For each topic area, the plan summarizes existing conditions, identifies issues and opportunities and outline recommendations and action items.
A committee with officials from the municipalities has been working on the plan for about 18 months. The Western Orleans Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee has completed a draft of the plan, a 339-page document that is available by clicking here.
MEDINA – The New York State Canal Corporation announced on Monday the lift bridge in Medina will be closed to all vehicular traffic on Route 63 from July 16 to Aug. 4 as repairs are made to the bridge’s lifting system.
Crews will be replacing the counterweight cables to the bridge, which carries traffic over the Erie Canal in the Orleans County village.
The pedestrian walkways will remain open during these repairs, except for a brief time after the bridge is first placed in the raised position. The pedestrian walkways will not be handicap accessible during the scheduled work period.
During the project, a signed detour for vehicles will be posted utilizing Route 31E (West Center Street and State Street), Route 271 (North Main Street) and Route 104 (Ridge Road).
Motorists using the detour routes are encouraged to plan their trips accordingly and leave extra time for travel.
This work will not affect the Erie Canalway Trail or navigation on the Canal System. While a barge will slightly encroach into the channel, the normal overhead clearance will not be affected. Mariners should reduce speed, stop all forward motion, and proceed at a “No Wake” speed when traversing this area.
