Today’s election will determine mayor, trustee races in Medina

Candidates share their perspectives on issues facing the village

Photos by Tom Rivers: Marguerite Sherman, left, is being challenged in her re-election bid for Medina mayor by current village trustee, Debbie Padoleski, who is retired from the village as clerk-treasurer.

MEDINA – It’s election day in the Village of Medina with voters to pick a mayor and two trustees. Polls are open from noon to 9 p.m. at the Senior Center at 615 West Ave.

Two candidates are on the ballot for mayor: Marguerite Sherman, the mayor the past two years, is challenged by Debbie Padoleski, a current village trustee who is retired as the village’s clerk-treasurer. Sherman will be on the “Village Party” line while Padoleski runs under the “People’s Party.”

Three candidates are on the ballot for trustee. Mark Prawel, a current trustee, retired Medina police officer and car mechanic; and Jeffrey Wagner, the owner of the former Apple Grove restaurant in Medina and a retired general manager for Cracker Barrel, are both on the “People’s Party” with Padoleski.

Dean Bellack, an active community member as a volunteer for the YMCA, United Way and Lions Club, also is running as a trustee under the “Connect Orleans Party.” Bellack is retired as owner of a manufacturer’s rep company and has been vocal about the village’s high taxes and need to expand housing options in the community.

Courtney Henderson also is mounting a write-in challenge for village trustee.

Mayoral candidates

Marguerite Sherman has led the village the past two years as mayor. She sees a village on an upswing with many projects and initiatives in the works, including implementation of the $4.5 million NY Forward grant in the downtown and Canal Basin. She acknowledges the headlines and conversation are often dominated by a new ladder truck and its permanent home.

Medina voted to purchase the ladder truck three years ago for $1.7 million. The truck doesn’t fit in the existing fire hall. Sherman wants to pursue grants for a one-bay addition to the fire hall. In the meantime, she said the truck could stay in the DPW garage.

Padoleski said the Village Board poorly thought out getting a ladder truck that didn’t fit in the existing fire hall, or having a solid plan for an addition to house the truck. “Their eyes got bigger than their pocketbooks,” she said.

She wants to sell the ladder truck, scrap plans for an addition on the fire hall and start the process over, with funding lined up before proceeding.

“This village in the last two years has spiraled into such a state of chaos I think they need me,” Padoleski said about running for mayor.

She retired in 2021 after working in the village office for 41 years. She said she has expertise in the village’s finances to set the community on a better path.

“We need to be able to self sustain and take care of ourselves,” she said. “We can’t sit around and wait for grants. That shouldn’t be the only way to survive, by relying on help from the outside.”

Padoleski said village taxpayers are bearing too much expense for services, especially for a fire department that often goes outside the village lines.

The fire department represents $2.9 million in spending, and brings in about $1.2 million in fees through its ambulance service. Padoleski said the $1.7 million difference is too much for village taxpayers, and accounts for more than the budgets for police and the Department of Public Works.

The Medina Fire Department is expected to do too much for communities outside the village, she said. She said a ladder truck typically sees little action in the village, but would be expected to respond frequently outside Medina.

The three towns of Shelby, Ridgeway and Yates currently pay $35,000 annually to the village towards the cost of replacing an ambulance. Medina is the primary ambulance provider for those towns and all of western Orleans. Padoleski said those three need to pay significantly more towards the service.

The village tax levy has gone from $3,197,059 in 2020-21 to $3,910,344 in 2025-26, a $713,285 or 22.3 percent increase. In Sherman’s two budgets as mayor (and Padoleski’s and Prawel’s two budgets as trustee), the tax levy went up $123,380 or 3.3 percent over two years, a significantly lower tax increase.

About a year ago, the Village Board ended the school resource officer from the Medina PD and the K9 program, and also cut four full-time firefighters and didn’t fill a vacancy in the DPW.

Padoleski worries if the village took on the new ladder truck and a fire hall addition. The ladder truck would represent $130,000 payment annually over the next 20 years, with the addition if financed at $1.3 million over 20 years another $110,000 payment. Those two together would raise the village tax rate by 88 cents per $1,000 of assessed property, she said.

She said taxpayers have encouraged her tough stance against taking on more big expenses for the village.

“I’m on the right side of it,” she said. “I have the support of the community.”

Sherman said she is committed to giving village employees the tools and equipment they need to safely provide services to the community.

“These employees put their heart and soul into the village every day,” she said.

She is very optimistic funding can be secured for the fire hall expansion as well as some improvements to the current fire station from the 1930s.

Last week, she led the effort to submit a $1 million grant request through Congresswoman Claudia Tenney’s office. The money would go towards the one-bay fire hall addition and also $475,000 in renovations to the current fire hall.

Sherman said the ladder truck and building issues have highlighted the challenge of villages to provide services at today’s escalating costs.

“It’s brought attention to Medina’s needs and the plea for all municipalities to work together for the benefit of the whole community,” she said.

Sherman, 63, is a retired special education teacher at Medina. She was on the Village Planning Board before joining the Village Board as a trustee a decade ago.

If elected to a new term, she will push for long-term strategic plans for infrastructure and sidewalk replacement. Last week she announced private donations for $200,000 towards new sidewalks.

She sees momentum on many fronts for Medina. She is seeking another term to continue that progress and see through the $4.5 million Forward NY grant, the development of the long-term plans for infrastructure, completion of Canal Corporation’s plan to repair the north wall in the Canal Basin and upgrade the canal trail.

She said the village deserves and needs more of the local sales tax (a share to towns and villages that hasn’t been increased by the County Legislature in 25 years). She wants to explore having Medina become a city, a change that would bring in a significant hike in state municipal aid and could also give Medina more leverage in the local sales tax pie.

“There’s no question our tax burden is too high,” Sherman said about the village.

She said she values her relationships with other local municipal leaders, including Shelby Town Supervisor Jim Heminway, Ridgeway Town Supervisor Brian Napoli and Yates Town Supervisor Jim Simon. All are serious about long-term strategies to make the local government more sustainable for residents, Sherman said.

“You can preach affordability, but you have to have a plan,” she said.

She praised the many residents and committees that give Medina a high quality of life. Volunteers run concert series and many other community events, developed the skate park and dog park, and worked to upgrade Boxwood Cemetery and village parks.

“We’re putting ourselves on the map through the efforts of a lot of people,” she said. “In Medina, we support each other. Everyone is important. Every idea is important. That’s what makes Medina great. We’re here to support each other.”

Village trustee candidates

The trustee candidates on the ballot include, from left: Jeff Wagner, Mark Prawel and Dean Bellack. Courtney Henderson also is mounting a write-in campaign.

Jeff Wagner, 72, is making his first run for public office. The former owner of the Apple Grove Inn, he also started the Miss Apple Grove that was a tourism juggernaut locally, with mules pulling a packet boat in Medina. It was featured in National Geographic.

Wagner would go on to serve as general manager of the Cracker Barrel in Lancaster, and corporate had him go to other stores as a training manager. He won GM of the year several times through Cracker Barrel.

Wagner wants to bring his business acumen to the Village Board.

“I would like to make a difference in how this runs,” he said.

He serves on Medina’s Tree Board and frequently brings his dog to the Medina Dog Park on North Gravel Road.

He wants to help develop plans for addressing the village’s aging infrastructure, sidewalks and fire hydrants.

Mark Prawel, 55, has been a trustee the past two years. He retired as a Medina police officer on April 16, 2023. He worked for the village for 16 ½ years. That gave him insight into the village operations. He also runs Prawel Auto Service on Ryan Street in Medina, where customers have been telling him the village taxes and too high, especially for the senior citizens.

Prawel said the fire department is consuming too much of the village budget, when other departments feel a very tight financial pinch. The DPW, for example, was reduced by a full-time employee a year ago and now only has a staff of nine full-time workers.

Prawel said Medina gives so much to the overall community, but village taxpayers get the bill.

“Everybody enjoys the Village of Medina,” he said. “We have all the parks, the ball fields.”

The village needs to bring in more outside revenue to help pay for the services offered to the community, he said.

He is proud of Medina’s downtown, but he said the bustling district can give the impression all is well in the village. Just a few blocks away, Prawel said neighborhoods are in decline and in need of help. He wants to bring more attention to those neighborhoods.

“We have a lot of issues in Medina, but a limited amount of money,” he said.

With the ladder truck and fire hall addition, “the facts are we just can’t afford it,” Prawel said.

He voted to declare the new ladder truck surplus, and expects the village will break even or make some money off a sale. He believes a smaller used ladder truck can be found that would fit in the existing fire hall.

“I’m not against equipment, I just want it to be a smart decision,” he said.

Dean Bellack, 68, says Medina needs to “change the curve” and form stronger alliances with other towns and villages in the county. Together they can share services and costs, and pursue much larger grants to help all the municipalities.

“We need to talk about true partnerships across towns and villages,” he said. “With bigger, larger grants you can get more political weight behind them.”

Bellack sees a village government in need of a new model. The current system puts too much cost burden on the municipality with about 6,000 residents. Bellack said more revenues are needed to help offset the load on the village. That could come through grants, or additional local sales tax, and state aid.

Bellack favored the efforts to dissolve the village back in 2014 and create “One Medina” with the towns of Ridgeway, Shelby and the village of Medina combined into one entity.

“If we went through with that I believe our economic situation would be much better,” he said. “You can’t just be focused on the short-term. I tend to think very large and very long-term.”

Bellack has helped revived struggling entities before. He noted the former Lake Plains YMCA was on the verge of closing before forming a successful partnership with the GLOW YMCA. Bellack is now chairman of the organization’s board, and he said the experience gives him a close look at communities in Genesee, Wyoming and Livingston, as well as Orleans. The local Y went from being broke to a remodel of the former Armory site in Medina that now has an endowment directing $70,000 a year to building maintenance and projects.

He also led the change in structure for the local United Way, which has been renamed “Orleans Community Connects.” Bellack said the agency has switched its focus from being a fundraiser for local non-profits to bringing in significant grants to address difficult issues in the community, from housing assistance, food access, caregiving support and technology help.

Bellack also owned and managed 43 apartments units in Medina. He said all of his experiences have him ready to serve as a village trustee, and look for long-term solutions for the village government.

“I have the time, the energy and I care,” he said.

He chose “Connect Orleans Party” as his party line. It speaks to a focus to bring communities in the county together on addressing issues.

“In Orleans County we can’t continue to be disconnected to each other,” he said.

Courtney Henderson

Courtney Henderson, a write-in candidate, said she wants to be a voice for village residents on the board. She has been endorsed by the union for the firefighters, Medina Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 2161. That union also backs Sherman for mayor.

“We support these candidates because they are committed to listening to all village residents, encouraging open public engagement and making decisions based on what is best for the entire community,” the union stated on its Facebook page. “Medina deserves leaders who welcome conversation, value transparency and put residents first, not personal agendas.”

Henderson said the firefighters, who also serve as EMTs on the ambulance, are short-staffed and that has resulted in $300,000 of overtime this budget year. The Village Board about a year ago eliminated four of the 21 full-time firefighter positions.

“A Village Trustee’s job isn’t just to vote,” she said on her campaign page on Facebook. “It’s to listen to residents, ask questions, review how tax dollars are spent, and make decisions that reflect what the community actually wants and needs. Small government works best when communication goes both ways, when residents feel comfortable speaking up, and when leadership takes the time to truly hear them.”