Medina will survive, as village voters decided Tuesday not to dissolve the nearly two-century old community into two towns. It was a hard-fought struggle over dissolution of the village, with claims property taxes on residents of the village would drop by a quarter. Taxes in the Towns of Shelby and Ridgeway would have gone up to make sure those residents had the same level of services.
That brought out sentiment in the towns to make the Medina residents pay the same taxes, just through a special district rather than a village. Medina has paid police and fire departments.
The dissolution vote went down by a vote of 949 against, 527 in favor.
Because the vote was about the village, only village residents could cast ballots on the proposals. Now, Medina has to deal with the costs of continuing as a village, with rising costs and a weakening economy.
Around the state, there has been a series of votes on dissolving villages, with voters dissolving some, most recently Seneca Falls. In Western New York, voters mostly kept their villages in a series of votes.
