Jane Jin Kaisen will give a presentation at 4 p.m. on Saturday in Medina.

MEDINA – The Medina Triennial is in its final month at 10 locations throughout the village.

A highlighted event this weekend is a screening and conversation with artist Jane Jin Kaisen and Toronto-based curator Noa Bronstein at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Triennial Hub headquarters on North Main Street.

Jane Jin Kaisen is an internationally known artist who will discuss her work directly with local audiences. The event demonstrates how the Medina Triennial connects a village along the Erie Canal with artists and histories from around the world.

Kaisen’s attention to memory and changing landscapes may resonate in Medina, where historic buildings and infrastructure are being given new cultural uses. The film’s questions about abandoned architecture, historical memory and the future of communities have relevance beyond Jeju Island.

Jeju Island in Korea is famous for its volcanic landscape, beautiful beaches and distinct cultural heritage, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site and Global Geopark.

The artist will share what drew her to the abandoned resort as a setting for her three films. She will explain how Burial of This Order, Dokkaebi and Sorrow Waters This Land speak to one another. Burial of This Order will be shown at the Hub, while the other two are running continuously at Mustang City, the former Medina High School.

Jane Jin Kaisen was born on Jeju Island in 1980 and is based in Copenhagen. She is interested in histories that have been excluded from official accounts. She represented Korea at the 8th Venice Biennale – the highest honor for an artist. It’s like winning an Olympic gold medal for your country, according to Triennial’s co-curator Karin Laansoo.

Bronstein is a writer and curator who has led two Canadian artist-tun organizations – Gallery 44 Centre for contemporary Photography and Gallery TPW. She has organized exhibitions and programs at institutions throughout Canada. Her work has appeared in numerous artists’ publications and she is currently assistant director of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto.

Federico Rosario, community engagement and programs coordinator at the Medina Triennial, is looking forward to a good crowd on Saturday. He said attendance at programs to date has been very well attended as word spreads. The Triennial was a front-page feature on last week’s Sunday edition of the Buffalo Evening News.

The Medina Triennial continues on Thursdays to Sundays through Sept. 7.

Grosh performs for about 900 people at State Street Park

Photos by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – Grosh performed for about 900 people spread out at State Street Park on Thursday evening to conclude this season’s Blue Thursdays concert series.

The first three concerts were cancelled due to weather, but the final three shows proved to be crowd pleasers with performances on July 16 by The Pat Harrington Trio, J͏u͏l͏y͏ ͏2͏3͏ ͏by the Eric Weinholtz Band and Thursday by Grosh.

Megan Brown is the lead singer for the band from Buffalo.

Grace Lougen plays the guitar for the band.

Grosh initially was a duo with Grace Lougen and Josh English on drums, but it quickly evolved into a high-energy quartet that also includes Megan Brown on vocals and Dylan Hund on bass.

MEDINA – Walking down Main Street, Pastor Barb Brewer from The Grove United Methodist Church couldn’t help hearing the music playing and thinking how nice it would be to have a community choir.

“Then I was driving home through the swamp when God spoke to my heart. ‘Put this choir together.’”

The pastor went home and started thinking about forming a singing group similar to those showcased in other communities, such as Lockport and Middleport. She took her idea to her friend, Edward “Eddie” Reeb, a graduate of Roberts Wesleyan College’s music program and director of the Lockport Chorale.

Brewer is planning an informational meeting at 7 p.m. Aug. 19 in the sanctuary of The Grove United Methodist Church, 11004 West Center St., for anyone who is interested in forming a Medina Community Choir.

“I already have a director and an accompanist,” Brewer said. “Mr. Reeb has agreed to direct a newly-formed choral group here in Medina.”

She also reached out to Tom Wenhold of Lyndonville, organist at the First Presbyterian Church of Lyndonville, who has agreed to join the effort as accompanist.

Plans are to present three community concerts a year – in spring, fall and at Christmas.

“So come one, come all and sing your hearts out for your community and beyond,” Brewer urges.

Photos by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – Medina firefighters Brian Bates (left), a paramedic/firefighter, and Lt. Jake Crooks hand out plastic firefighter helmets to kids at the National Night Out on Tuesday outside the Clifford Wise Intermediate School. Medina firefighters also gave bags with fire prevention tips for kids.

Medina hosted the National Night Out for the fifth time on Tuesday, and drew several hundred people. First responders and agencies from throughout the county were there to run activities and answer questions from residents.

Paul Urquart, a Medina firefighter, helps Jace Boyle, 10, of Medina aim a fire hose at a target.

Mila McAdoo, 4, of Medina throws a ball at the dunk tank target. She was able to get Shawn Ramsey, owner of Canalside Tattoo Company, to plunge into the water.

Christy Gross, who works at a salon at the Walmart in Albion, gives Blair, age 5, a haircut. Gross offered free haircuts during National Night Out.

Orleans County Sheriff’s deputy Jeff Cole and Odin, the department’s K9, did demonstrations during NNO. Odin has been trained and is certified for drug detection, tracking and searches.

Sherrie Bensley, public health educator for GO Health, serves pizza that was donated by Mark’s Pizzeria. Mark’s donated 20 sheet pizzas for the event.

Bensley was co-chair of the NNO Committee with Diana Fulcomer of UConnectCare. Other committee members include Alishia Foss and Taryn Moyle of Community Action, Jess Marciano of the Village of Medina, and Danielle Figura of the Orleans County Mental Health Department.

Bensley said National Night Out builds connections in the community.

“I think it’s very important for our youth to see our first responders in action and form a relationship,” she said. “They see they are the good guys.”

Taryn Moyle, Alishia Foss and Danielle Figura were busy serving pizza donated by Mark’s. The pizza was a change from previous years when hot dogs were given out for free.

This kid fires a fastball at the dunk tank target, trying to get Shawn Ramsey wet.

Fire departments and law enforcement agencies gave people a chance to see equipment up close.

UB professors to turn former concrete plant into site with focus on state’s history, biodiversity and agriculture

Photos by Douglas Levere/University at Buffalo – The public greenspace initiative in Medina will be located along the Erie Canal, north of the Glenwood Avenue bridge and the Big Apple sculpture.

By Laurie Kaiser, News Content Director at University at Buffalo

MEDINA – Two University at Buffalo professors are leading a public ecological project in Medina, which will honor the agricultural, cultural and economic history of Western New York.

Joyce Hwang, FAIA, professor of architecture in the School of Architecture and Planning, and Mishuana Goeman, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Indigenous Studies, have received a $195,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to plan a public space on land owned by New York State.

It will involve a cultural and biological history of the site, particularly connected to apples and other native fruits, and will feature public art in the form of hybrid trees, created by renowned artist Sam Van Aken, MFA, associate professor of art at Syracuse University.

“The project aims to create a public landscape and living archive that focuses on the crucial role that apples have played in New York’s transformation through a long engagement in Haudenosaunee history, colonization, immigration and commerce,” Hwang says. “As one of the most diverse fruit-growing states, New York has historically become the home to hundreds of apple varieties, many of which have been lost due to industrialization, monoculture farming and changing market demands.”

The project highlights the state’s agricultural history, notes Hwang, who has been developing a series of projects that incorporate wildlife habitats into constructed environments over the past two decades.

“When we began our initial discussion,” Hwang says, “I was thinking that if we’re going to be talking about the state’s agricultural history, we have to include the Department of Indigenous Studies.”

The public landscape will be built on two acres located along the Erie Canal that is close to the Tonawanda Band of Seneca Nation. Once home to a concrete plant, the space is adjacent to a larger capital project that the New York Power Authority (NYPA) is undertaking to renovate the Empire State Trail, adding accessible walkways and bike paths along the canal.

This summer Goeman and Hwang are meeting with community shareholders in Medina, as well as NYPA and the New York State Canal Corporation (NYSCC). Other UB collaborators include Christopher Romano, AIA, assistant professor of architecture, Alissa Ujie Diamond, PhD, assistant professor of urban and regional planning, and Jason Corwin, PhD, clinical assistant professor of indigenous studies.

Goeman, who has connections through patrilineal descent with Tonawanda Band of Seneca, says this location has so much potential as an important intersection between Medina, which is the widest spot on the Erie Canal, and the reservation.

“I really believe in a project of land solidarity and creating more solidarity practices within Medina by incorporating local Indigenous voices and histories that often are not told in this particular area,” Goeman explains.

In 1779, a military campaign led by Gen. John Sullivan during the American Revolutionary War, burned down all the orchards and corn fields that were attached to the villages of the Haudenosaunee (also known as Iroquois).

As European agricultural practice took root in the following decades, apples became a cornerstone of New York’s economy, with hundreds of apple varieties available by the early 20th century. Industrial practices in more recent years have reduced the number of commercially available varieties to only a few dozen.

The project seeks to address these challenges by serving as a living archive of the state’s rich apple heritage, reintroducing heirloom and antique varieties that once flourished across the region and tracing patterns of migration, settlement, colonialism and  biodiversity. One of the project’s goals is to use multigrafting techniques explored by Van Aken, who created the Tree of 40 Fruits. This is a horticultural technique where multiple varieties of fruit are grafted onto a single root system.

“Through conversations and archival research, we aim to compile a historical narrative for the site that can serve as a guiding document for the design of the park’s interpretive elements, such as signage, and selection of plantings and tree species going forward,” Hwang says.

For additional information, the UB team is meeting with representatives from the Buffalo History Museum, the Erie Canal Museum, the Medina Historical Society, the village of Medina and the Tonawanda Reservation Historical Society and preparing an archival narrative to present during a meeting with all the shareholders in the fall.

An enormous part of the work this summer, Hwang says, is analyzing the site itself. When the time comes, the team intends to co-design the space in collaboration with the shareholders in Medina.

“Ultimately, we’re interested in creating a place where everyone can feel welcome,”  Hwang says. “I think it’s important that it reflect not just the history of the Erie Canal that most of us know, but also the hidden histories that need to be included.”

File photo by Natalie Baron: Caspian Villegas of Medina high-fives the Safety Pup during National Night Out in Medina on Aug. 5, 2025.

MEDINA – National Night Out is back for the fifth year in Medina on Tuesday with free pizza, and lots of activities to connect with local first responders and agencies that serve the community.

The event runs from 5:30 to 8 p.m. outside the Clifford Wise Intermediate School at 1016 Gwinn St.

National Night Out often draws about 500 to 800 people. Albion hosted NNO for five years from 2015 to 2019. It was then cancelled due to the Covid pandemic and restrictions in 2020 and 2021. Medina has hosted it annually since 2022.

There are many activities including the Battle of the Belts competition which will be emceed by Assemblyman Steve Hawley. The battle of the Belts feature four-person teams alternating as fast as they can to put on seat belts in four different seats in a car. Many community members also will be in the dunk tank and there will again be a bike rodeo.

A committee planning the event has been co-chaired by Diana Fulcomer of UConnectCare and Sherrie Bensley of GO Health. Other committee members include Alishia Foss and Taryn Moyle of Community Action, Jess Marciano of the Village of Medina, and Danielle Figura of the Orleans County Mental Health Department.

‘I love to see art in unexpected places’ – Selva Aparicio

(Left – Provided photo) Selva Aparicio is the artist behind an exhibit at the Medina Railroad Museum, where she will give a talk at noon Saturday. (Right – photo by Ginny Kropf) Noele Wiedemer, director of the Medina Railroad Museum, looks at a broom carved out of anthracite by artist Selva Aparicio. The exhibit is one of the features of the Medina Triennial and can be seen in a crossing booth on the grounds of the Railroad Museum. 

MEDINA – The Medina Triennial continues into the summer with a special presentation from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Medina Railroad Museum by world-acclaimed interdisciplinary artist Selva Aparico, whose work centers on sculpture and installation.

Her contribution to the Medina Triennial, entitled “Maintenance,” is a broom made of anthracite coal and reclaimed steel rail fragments, an idea conceived after a visit to the Railroad Museum.

An associate professor who teaches sculpture at Alfred University, Aparico has won numerous awards, including the VILCEK Prize for Contemporary Promise in Spain.

She said she was contacted by Triennial co-curators Keri Conte and Karin Laansoo to do a work that would correspond to the Railroad Museum’s collection. She hadn’t visited Medina before, but came here a year ago to visit the museum.

“I was impressed how people helped me with the specific information I requested,” Aparicio said. “I toured the museum and the brooms really fascinated me – how they did the work and the fact they were found in the walls. It was a perfect metaphor for labor and how things that do work were thrown in the walls when they weren’t needed. They were magic treasure waiting to be told.”

With a background in stone carving, Aparacio started looking into anthracite coal and everything necessary to transform brooms into anthracite. She found a company in Bath called Homestead Coal, who agreed to sell her small amounts of anthracite coal.

“Coal is brittle and hard to carve,” the artist said. “When you connect all the pieces and you get up close, you can see the lines from a little lump of coal. This takes you back to times when coal was used to run trains.”

Her work is displayed in a historic crossing booth, resting on a reclaimed rail on the railroad museum grounds.

“It took me seven weeks to complete the carving,” Aparicio said. “I had to polish it as well. It is exciting to see contemporary art in a small town.”

Aparicio first came to America for her undergraduate degree in fine arts in Chicago in 2016. After she finished her degree, she lived in New York City, where she applied for her masters. Back in Chicago, she was hit by a truck while crossing the street, and returned to Spain for surgery. Returning to the U.S. she went to Connecticut, where she got her master’s in sculpture at Yale.

“I love to see art in unexpected places,” Aparicio said. “It is more approachable for anyone to whom galleries seem unapproachable. The Medina Triennial is a really exciting and approachable way to experience contemporary art, and I feel lucky to be a part of it.”

Aparicio added that Medina was a beautiful town and everyone had been kind and helpful to her.

“I love the town and all of Upstate New York,” she said.

Following Aparicio’s talk, visitors can view another Triennial exhibit on the Railroad Museum grounds, “Live Work Session: Faithfully Recording,” by  Lina Lapelyte, as work unfolds by a small team, who gathers to sing while constructing a sculpture from pieces of reclaimed Medina sandstone.

All exhibits in the Medina Triennial are free and open to the public Thursdays through Sundays until Labor Day.

Provided photo

MEDINA – The Medina High Class of 1986 recently held its 40th reunion at the Knights of Columbus in Medina.

Over 60 classmates attended the event traveling from 13 different states. The class also donated over $600 to the Richard Knights-Sue Kaderli Memorial Fund in memory of classmates who have passed away. The Knights-Kaderli Fund provides financial assistance to people in Orleans County who are battling cancer.

Photo from shopgarage.com: Medina’s ladder truck is shown on an online site that sells fire trucks, emergency vehicles and equipment.

MEDINA – The Village of Medina has received offers and a lot of interest in its ladder truck, and the apparatus could be sold next month at a tidy profit for Medina, village officials said.

The website, shopgarage.com, lists the 2025 quint fire truck with a 100-foot ladder for $2.4 million. That is about $700,000 more than Medina’s deal for the truck. Medina in March 2023 agreed to pay $1,698,995 to Pierce manufactruing.

The truck hasn’t been put into service by the Medina Fire Department, a move the Village Board decided would maximize the sale value.

Village Trustee Scott Bieliski said the offers thus far would allow Medina to at least break even. The board in April approved a 2026-27 village budget that included $300,000 in profit for the sale of the ladder truck. Bieliski said he expects Medina will reach the $300,000 number in profit. The truck sale would have to reach at least $2.1 million for the $300,000 profit. The village is working with a broker that collects a 5 percent fee or about $100,000.

Interested fire departments in the ladder truck are working with their municipalities to work out financing, which has stretched out the process, Bieliski said.

During Monday’s Village Board meeting, he declined to disclose the offers publicly for the ladder truck, but said there is strong interest in the 2025 Pierce Enforcer Quint.

The Village Board on Feb. 9 voted to declare the truck surplus, to begin the process of selling it. The board said the truck isn’t affordable for the community. In addition to buying the truck, the village would need to put an addition on the fire hall to accommodate it. The current fire hall is too small for the new truck. A one-bay addition would cost at least $1.3 million.

Village Board also approves Boxwood at Night event for Oct. 3

File photo by Tom Rivers: Sandra and Tom Philbrick portray Susan and John Bland at the Bland family plot during the Boxwood at Night event on Oct. 5, 2024. The Philbricks live in the Bland family home on West Center Street. Boxwood at Night returns on Oct. 3.

MEDINA – The Village Board on Monday authorized spending $22,800 to remove seven trees in Boxwood Cemetery.

The board also approved spending $8,500 to reset two monuments that are in a precarious position. The money comes from two cemetery funds.

The Boxwood Cemetery Commission was initially eyeing about $36,000 be spent to repair the Newell retaining wall. But Jake Hebdon, the leader of the commission, said the group is very concerned about the seven dead trees and wants them removed because they pose a danger to the public, and the monuments and headstones at the cemetery.

Hebdon urged the Village Board to make it a priority to have the trees removed before Boxwood hosts two Medina cross country races in the falls and the Boxwood at Night event on Oct. 3.

“Due to liability issues the trees should take major precedence,” Hebdon said at Monday’s Village Board meeting. “If we could green light that ASAP that would be fantastic.”

The Village Board approved the $22,800 bid from Lakeshore Tree Service in Gasport to remove the large trees, which include maple, beech and oak.

The board approved paying Brigden Memorials in Albion $8,500 to take care of two large monuments that are close to toppling over. That includes the Hedley monument and a spire for the Fuller family.

Brigden will need to put in new concrete footers and move the monuments, dissembling and then resetting them.

The village has been the caretaker of the Boxwood Cemetery since about 1850, even though the site is outside the village. Mayor Debbie Padoleski said will reach out to Town of Ridgeway officials about helping to support the cemetery, which is in the town.

The Village Board also gave its blessing for the Boxwood at Night event on Oct. 3. The event features dramatic lighting around the cemetery, as well as music and highlighting some of the prominent people in the cemetery. Boxwood at Night is the biggest fundraiser for the Friends of Boxwood.

Todd Bensley, one of the Friends members, said past events helped raise money to refurbish a stained-glass window in the chapel. He is hopeful a new memorial will be ready by Oct. 3 for the 107 people buried in a potter’s field. Only 28 have head stones. The Friends wants to list all 107 people.

The village approved closing the cemetery at 2 p.m. on Oct. 3 to allow for setup. The DPW will deliver five traffic barricades at the cemetery entrances and Glenwood Boat Launch. The DPW also will bring two garbage barrels near the boat launch and deliver two light stands.