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The family, which owns the property through North Brook Farms, has also developed the Nolan Block in downtown Auburn and several apartments in the area through KyleCroft Development.

Grant Kyle told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV on Thursday that the development will consist of 14,000 to 16,000 square feet of commercial leasing space. Located at the intersection of North Street and Standart Avenue, it will benefit from the high traffic and the traffic light there, he said. According to 2019 Department of Transportation data, that segment of North Street averages almost 13,000 vehicles a day.

There will be up to eight suites in the development, Kyle continued, but he anticipates some tenants will take up more than one. The family is looking to attract food and traditional commercial tenants, and the development will include a drive-thru. It should also have at least 70 parking spots, though the Kyles are still modifying their plans with more outdoor seating and other COVID-19 concerns.

Kyle said he expects to bring the development before the Auburn Planning Board this winter. The project does not yet have an estimated budget, but he hopes to complete it by the end of 2022.

The 2.13-acre property was in 2019 slated to become the site of Prison City Brewing's new production facility, but that was relocated up the street at 251 North St. Its full market value is $210,526.

At 4:22 a.m. Saturday, the Auburn Police Department and Auburn Fire Department were dispatched to a report of a motor vehicle accident at the intersection of Lake Avenue and Metcalf Drive. Upon arrival police found a four-door, tan colored Hyundai had collided with a tree near the intersection. Bell and Reed were pronounced dead at the scene by EMTs from injuries sustained in the accident.

An investigation has revealed that excessive speed was a contributing factor in the accident. The investigation is still ongoing and Auburn police say they will update with any further developments when they become available.

If anyone has information about the accident, they can contact Detective Sean DeRosa at 315-255-4706 or sderosa@auburnny.gov. Callers can remain anonymous.

There was a small fire was in the attic that was knocked down quickly, the Auburn Fire Department said. Fire investigators were called to the scene.

Chapman was processed and arraigned in Auburn City Court, police said. 

Auburn police began investigating the overdose death on Jan. 18 when officers and Auburn firefighters were dispatched to a Catlin Street residence for a report of an unconscious man. When first responders arrived at the scene, the man was dead from an apparent drug overdose. 

Anyone with information about the case should contact Detective Sean DeRosa at (315) 255-4706 or by email at sderosa@auburnny.gov. Callers can remain anonymous. 

In a news release, state police said that the preliminary investigation determined that Thomas Carlton, 54, of Weedsport, experienced a medical event upon arrival at work. Carlton’s 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse then went through the parking area, entered the pond and became submerged.

Rescue efforts were initiated but were unsuccessful, police said, and Carlton was pronounced deceased at the scene. An autopsy is scheduled to determine an official cause of death.

State police said they were assisted at the scene by the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office, Jordan Fire Department and Jordan Ambulance.

The investigation was continuing Tuesday afternoon.

Potter, a native of Weedsport, worked on his family's dairy farm before getting his first "real" job at the Old Erie Restaurant in the village, where he worked for 15 years. 

Those two passions are represented by the name of the new restaurant, he told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV on Wednesday in its rear dining room.

"The name is about my journey, growing up on a dairy farm where you learn hard work and what it takes to make a dollar. It isn't easy, nor is the restaurant business," he said.

"But there is something very satisfying about making people happy and feeding people."

Potter left Weedsport for Phoenix, Arizona, where he lived and worked in food service for years before returning to the area. He met Buonomo at the University of Rochester. They worked at a campus hotel until March, when the owner of their company passed away. He was going to support their opening of a restaurant on campus, but without him, they decided to set out on their own.

Potter and Buonomo looked at restaurants in Rochester, and then one in the Thousand Islands, but felt those markets were too saturated and seasonal, respectively. So they started looking in Potter's hometown. The Old Erie, which he tried to buy in 2005, had deteriorated to the point of being a money pit, he said. They also looked at Devaney's Riverside Grill in Weedsport.

After visiting Devaney's, Potter and Buonomo happened to go to Brenda's Diner for lunch. When they learned that owner Brenda Hirsch was looking to sell her business, Potter was hesitant at first. 

"I've never been passionate about breakfast," he said with a laugh. "I'm not a morning guy, so that part of it scared me. I'm a lunch and dinner guy. I like having a bar, and we don't have a bar here."

What won Potter and Buonomo over, though, was the space at the Route 31 restaurant. Along with the traditional diner counter and seating, it has a dining hall several times bigger in the back, as well as a private room that can be used for banquets and other events. With the Old Erie and Devaney's closed, he and Buonomo saw an opportunity to become the new destination for those events.

The partners bought the restaurant in July. They spent the next few months replacing its kitchen equipment and décor, and renovating the building with the help of family.

The menu, Potter said, is "a more approachable version of farm-to-table." The restaurant sources local ingredients when it can, like beef and pork from Rosencrans Local Market in Auburn and produce from Owen Orchards in Sennett, whose hard cider is used in a popular Drunken Pork Chop entrée. But Potters doesn't fully meet the definition of farm-to-table, and that's by design.

"Farm-to-table can scare people away with pricing, then you get into the organic stuff," Potter said. "To me, it's more about having it be fresh and local, and keeping it affordable for families."

Similarly, Potters isn't a diner by name, but its owners said they aren't offended to be called one. Diners are "quintessentially American," Potter said, and celebrate farmers and other blue-collar workers like his and Buonomo's restaurant. They also celebrate the community, which Potters does by giving agricultural workers lifetime 15% discounts, and serving Panther and Warrior loaded baked potatoes. Customers select between the Port Byron and Weedsport mascots when they order the potato, and $1 from the sale is donated to that school district's parent-teacher association.

"That's what makes a small town tick," Potter said. "Everybody helping each other out."

Fort Hill staff often greeted him while he did so, Wilson said, which made it surprising when his brother received the letter asking him to remove the embellishments within 30 days. What also made it surprising was the fact that the reverend, not his brother, owns the deed to the gravesite. When Wilson bought it, he added, he never received the the letter referenced.

All that surprise hit Wilson a little harder because the letter was sent to his brother while he was sick with COVID-19, he said. His brother even considered moving their mother to Rochester.

"You sent this information to the wrong person," Wilson said Wednesday morning in the cemetery. "He's fighting for his life, now he has to fight with you about some rocks and stones."

Through correspondence with the cemetery's board and its superintendent, Gerald DelFavero, Wilson learned that his mother's gravesite was one of three whose owners were sent letters asking them to address violations of the rules and regulations. DelFavero told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV that the three gravesites had the most violations in their respective sections of rule No. 5, section No. 4, which states:

"No fences, hedges, posts or enclosures of any kind will be allowed on lots. No wooden or wire trellis are permitted on lots or graves. No decorations may hang from trees or shrubs. No decorative stones or bark may be placed around markers or monuments. No planting will be allowed. All flower arrangements must be in pots. No glass containers are allowed."

Wilson, however, believes even the most casual observer can see that more than three gravesites violate that rule in Fort Hill, where more than 24,000 have been buried since 1851. He claims DelFavero told him that about 900 of the historic cemetery's sites violate it. The superintendent said he doesn't remember making that remark, and if he did, it was likely sarcastic. 

Still, the reverend believes enough sites violate the rule that it's obvious his mother's has been singled out. His father's, for instance, has a similar stone bed, but Wilson didn't receive a letter about it.

DelFavero admitted that the cemetery's rules and regulations are enforced somewhat arbitrarily. New gravesites, like Hall's, are often given a sort of grace period as people grieve, he said. Though items like stone beds can obstruct his grounds crew as they cut the grass, they commonly move what they can, mow the area and then move the items back where they were placed.

"We try to be as sensitive as we can to people and their gravesites," DelFavero said. "We do overlook some of the smaller violations, but maybe we shouldn't."

The cemetery holds its annual cleanup on Oct. 15, DelFavero continued, so all other gravesites in violation of the rules and regulations will be addressed then.

Wilson didn't wait for the cemetery to clean his mother's gravesite, as he cleared the stone bed and other violating items this summer. He doesn't want any other site owners to have to remove their sentimental or decorative items, he said, but he believes the cemetery should be consistent with its enforcement of the rules. He doesn't know why it wasn't with his mother's site. 

The reverend, who is Black, was reluctant to say the board's motive was racist, though he referred to its members as "good old boys." One of the other two owners sent letters is also Black, he added.

Still, Wilson appreciates Fort Hill. He briefly served on its board, and has officiated countless funerals there. He just wishes its board did a better job handling what he admitted can be a sensitive issue.

"It's one of the best-kept cemeteries in the area," he said. "I have no problem with the rules, but this was unprofessional of them."

A bottle and can redemption business has occupied a storefront in the building, which also has residential units, and the building had been evacuated by the time firefighters arrived.

The AFD reported on its Facebook page that some firefighters performed ventilation and a search of the building while others brought a hose line up to the third-floor attic. Another fire unit was used to supply water.

A second alarm was requested to cover the city during the emergency, the AFD said, and Fleming Fire Department #1 was also put on standby for an additional ladder truck.

The fire was quickly extinguished but extensive overhaul was required. Crews remained on the scene until about 10 p.m. assisting fire investigators, and the cause was determined to be electrical.

The Red Cross assisted six displaced residents.

The fire department said that it was assisted by TLC Ambulance, Auburn Police Department, City DPW, City Code Enforcement and NYSEG.

Law enforcement found that a four-door Hyundai had hit a tree near the intersection. The vehicle's operator and only passenger were declared dead at the scene by emergency medical technicians.

The investigation was ongoing and "police are still attempting to notify the next of kin," the APD said Saturday afternoon.

According to the state Department of Transportation, Lake Avenue was closed between Metcalf and Sand Beach Road until about 2 p.m. Saturday.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Sean DeRosa at (315) 255-4706 or derosa@auburnny.gov.

Before the decision, Burroughs addressed the board during the first public comments portion of the meeting. She said she would never abandon her students.

"They are the reason I am here to do my job. It's not for the money. I'm dedicated to making sure that the students get their accommodations and the support that they need," she said. 

Burroughs said she learned about her impending termination and the reason for it through .

"This was a shock to me and a defamation of my character," she said. "I guess I was naive to think that the district would provide me with this information prior to that moment. And more importantly, I was told that I would not be permitted to work. So therefore, how could you consider that I abandoned my position?"

She noted she has a communication from Skaneateles Superintendent Eric Knuth saying she wouldn't be permitted to work, and added that her building principal told her to gather her things and he helped her carry them out.

"I'm deeply saddened and dismayed that the district will not honor any religious accommodations that I or anyone else files," Burroughs said.

She added she sent in religious exemptions and accommodations to the district twice. 

"This ideology," she said, goes against the First Amendment of the U.S. constitution and violates the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which she said protect employees from religious discrimination.

She concluded by saying that she has retained a attorney "who is in the process of filing a lawsuit against the district and Onondaga County."

As she spoke, Burroughs did not specify what she was seeking a religious exemption for, but school districts in New York have been by the state Department of Health to require all employees either be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing.

Districts that fail to enforce the regulation could be subject to fines of $1,000 per day in which it has employees in violation.

The state's vaccination-related mandates have faced numerous challenges in recent weeks, including lawsuits from plaintiffs claiming they should be exempted for religious beliefs.