Weekly top reads: Fleming crash, St. Patrick’s Day in Auburn, Sherwood Inn renovations | Local News

Auburn woman ticketed in Thursday night Fleming crash

An Auburn woman was ticketed in a crash at the traffic circle on Route 38 in Fleming Thursday night, state police said.

The incident was called in at 8:50 p.m., Cayuga County 911 dispatchers said. State police said Brooke A. Joy, 21, of Greenview Circle, was driving south on Route 38 and failed to yield for the vehicle driven by Shawn M. Garrigan, 45, of Auburn. 

New logo, same ethos: Auburn company redesigns itself as founder takes new role

AUBURN — The authoritative bars of “Prison City Pub & Brewery.” The childlike scrawls of ABC Cayuga’s “Play Space.” The vibrant grain of “Anne of Green Gables” at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse.

The work of Coburn Design is all around Auburn. For more than 25 years, its clean, bold imagery has been integral to the brands of hundreds of clients. But joining the list of Coburn’s current design projects is its own logo. Because after founder Laura Coburn took a position with The Inns of Aurora in September 2017, she and her trusted team felt it was time to do their own rebranding.

Speaking Monday at their Genesee Street office, Coburn, Creative Director Chris Madden and Senior Designer Natalie Kimbrough said their organizational structure has changed since Coburn stopped working there full-time. She still owns the company, she said, but her work is limited to weekly check-ins. She’s also available to provide advice and ideas at any time.

When it comes to creative direction, though, it’s Madden and Kimbrough at the helm, handling everything from Prison City’s beer labels and the Finger Lakes SPCA of Central New York’s website to the graphics adorning the city of Auburn’s Showmobile stage. And Coburn couldn’t be any more confident in her team’s ability to take the company through its next 25 years, she said.

Coburn started Coburn Design in her Orchard Avenue home in 1992. The Citizen’s creative director at the time, she had started doing freelance design work for her clients that she couldn’t do through the newspaper. She left The Citizen to focus on her new company full-time that November. After years of using part-timers, she hired her first full-time employee. Eventually, Coburn Design swelled to a staff of five. One of them was Madden, who came to the company from Scotsman Press in 2007. Then, about five years ago, Coburn and Madden decided to scale the team down, she said.

“Rather than being all things to all people, we’ve looked at what we’re really great at,” Coburn said. “And we really excel at illustration and web design.”

With Madden handling the former and Coburn the latter, the two were able to take only the clients they were passionate about. The company maintains about 20 active ones at any given time, Coburn said, though it’s worked with closer to 100 within the last three years. And because its services can be provided remotely, that client list reaches as far as California and Minneapolis.

Coburn landed the Minneapolis one, she said, when a former Merry-Go-Round Playhouse intern working there found local designers too imposing. Remembering her work with the Auburn company on the theater’s show logos, she contacted Coburn. Other times, Madden said, the company uses social media to tout its talents to remote clients, and Skype to stay responsive to their needs.

Most of Coburn’s clients, however, remain in the community. That local support has led Coburn to make giving part of the company’s mission, she said. When funding fell through for a logo the King Ferry Food Pantry requested last holiday season, Coburn waived the fee. The company also feels strongly about the Finger Lakes SPCA of CNY — Madden’s Boston terrier, Ruby, shares his office space — so Kimbrough built its website for no charge. And Coburn uses gifts to express gratitude for the longtime support of the Merry-Go-Round and, later, Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival.

In 2014, the company began working with what, along with the festival, Kimbrough called one of Coburn’s most exciting and high-profile clients: Prison City.

Since before Dawn Schulz opened the State Street brewpub that December, Prison City has sourced almost every one of its designs from Coburn, such as menus, glassware, beer labels and more.

“They have a really good knowledge of what our brand is,” Schulz said. “Branding, especially in the competitive craft beer market, really makes a big difference. It makes people recognize you.”

Schulz also praised the clean lines of Madden’s work, which demonstrates one aspect of Coburn’s approach to design. All the company’s visuals are easy to read and reproducible across a variety of formats, Madden said, from small website icons to large theatrical posters. Coburn added that the cleanliness and organization of those designs can inspire confidence in the people who see them.

“If you’re not a designer, you don’t necessarily know why it’s great,” she said. “But there’s something about it that just makes you feel a certain way.”

Whether it’s Schulz, Brett Smock of the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival or other clients, Coburn also follows a collaborative process with them. Most give the company room to generate ideas, and as it does, clients chime in with theirs. Coburn said the company has to remain assertive, though, as sometimes clients may lack their audience’s perception of the brand. The way colors work can also be misleading: A client who wants lime green, for instance, may not understand how yellow it will look on a website across Apple, Samsung and other platforms, Coburn said.

Madden, who has an M.S. in graphic design from SUNY Oswego, is there to navigate clients through that part of the process. A year and a half ago, he and Coburn added a third part-time employee in Kimbrough. After interning there 10 years prior, she returned with a BFA in visual communication and design from Kent State University, plus three years of experience designing for the University of Arizona. But it was her project management background, in particular, that combined with Madden’s design skills to give Coburn the confidence they could carry on the company she started.

The Inns of Aurora felt the same way, Coburn said. The Aurora company had been making overtures to her for more than a year, she said, but she worried how Coburn Design would continue without her. And the Inns of Aurora, a longtime client, didn’t want her at her company’s expense. But the week Kimbrough arrived, the Inns of Aurora made another offer. She felt ready for a second career, Madden felt ready to lead the company and Kimbrough felt ready to go full-time. So they made the transition. And, naturally, they began working on a new logo, still in progress, to communicate it.

“It was a really wonderful, natural, very smooth transition,” Coburn said. “The universe provides, I’ve always believed. Doors open when they’re meant to open.”

Ancient Order of Hibernians club in Auburn celebrates family, heritage for St. Patrick’s Day

AUBURN — With a beer in hand while decked out in green, David McKeon couldn’t help but think of his dad, William McKeon, at the Ancient Order of Hibernians’ St. Patrick’s Day celebration Saturday.

David said his family’s Irish heritage was important to William, to the point where the holiday is the day “I remember him the most.” David proudly noted his father was a charter family of the local Hibernians club, which had been open to the public for the last several days.

AOH president Bob Oliver said earlier in the week family is extremely important to members and that the holiday helps families celebrate their heritage. Oliver said he believes the club has an extremely friendly atmosphere.

“It’s just a barrel of fun, you don’t leave there not smiling,” Oliver said. “The friendship, unity, and Christian charity, that’s what it’s all about. We don’t mind an ice-cold libation, either.”‘

Oliver and his daughter Heather Roberts could be seen at the celebration Saturday. They were both drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon, the favored drink of the late Paul “Jake” Oliver, Bob Oliver’s father and Roberts’ grandfather. Roberts noted “a good chunk” of the Oliver family tree was at the club. They were not alone, with several people seen throughout the club eating food, drinking beer and trading jokes.

“How ya doing?” and “How ya been?” could be heard every few minutes at the club Saturday afternoon. Kevin Finizio and other bartenders rarely stood still for long, frequently pouring drinks and getting ice. Images of clovers were peppered throughout the club, with a massive image of a clover adorning the part of Van Anden Street right in front of the club.

Several members of the Maher family were at the event, with the children often playing games. Layla Maher, 3, danced at a stage area nearby at one point. Different children could be seen sitting on family member Melanie Maher’s lap.

“It’s a nice opportunity for families to get together,” Sharon Maher said.

Gregg Lawson — an AOH member for about a decade – and his wife, Paula, ate food in the corner of one of the rooms, with Paula’s sister Sharon Burke occasionally sitting down to chat. Burke, who had also been working in the club’s kitchen, said St. Patrick’s Day isn’t about stereotypes of Irish people drinking.

“It’s about heritage,” Burke said. “Keeping your ancestors alive.”

After renovation, Sherwood Inn in Skaneateles to welcome back guests

On Thursday morning, the Sherwood Inn was a flurry of activity. Saws whirred away on carpentry tables, a crane brought drywall up through a third-floor window and workers moved furniture all through the building — all to get what staff described as “the living room of Skaneateles” ready for Friday lunch after its first major renovation in years.

“We are literally working to the last minute,” restaurant manager Nancy Canny said.

Construction crews and Sherwood staff have been hard at work since late February — although planning began in August — to complete a renovation of the inn that’s welcomed guests since 1807, including a redesign of the lobby and a complete rebuild of several guest rooms.

As proof of the inn’s long history, Jason Armijo, part of the crew of longtime Sherwood contractor David Lee & Co., found a floorboard in the staircase signed by John Packwood, the property’s owner from the end of the Civil War to 1874.

David Lee and his team have been working on the Sherwood since about 1983, he said, joking that at this point, he’s renovated some of his own renovations.

“But it all has the same look and feel,” Lee said.

Executive Administrator Nancy Ranieri said the consistency throughout numerous renovations — the last major one was approximately 10 years ago — is largely due to Lee’s meticulous attention to detail.

“It’s not right until he says it’s right,” she said.

The changes won’t be drastic, Canny said, as the intention behind them was to maintain and even enhance the Federal architecture style of the inn and emphasize its history.

“The character of the inn very much remains the same,” Canny said. “If anything, I think it’s improved.”

The dining room, for example, has had the staining of its wooden walls changed from a light pine-type color to something darker to make for a warmer dining experience, Ranieri said.

Some of the first changes visitors will see are in the lobby area, with perhaps the biggest being the conversion of a small gift shop into an all-wooden front desk and coat check area. The lobby area as a whole has been redesigned to provide a more open, comfortable space, Ranieri said.

The furniture, in keeping with the Federal theme, are actual antiques, but ones the inn has been careful to ensure are still comfortable, Ranieri said.

“We want things to look like they belong, like they’ve always been here,” she said.

In the waiting area, Canny said, guests could often be observed moving smaller pieces of furniture to gather more closely around the fireplace, or to find a place to rest their drinks. With those observations in mind, the renovation was meant to more naturally accommodate guests, and allow them to enjoy wine and small plates in the lobby, Ranieri said.

“You watch what your guests do and sort of shape it around that,” Canny said of Sherwood owner Bill Eberhardt’s philosophy behind the renovations.

The changes couldn’t be too drastic, Canny said. As the inn went through the renovations, the staff shared photos of the progress to Facebook, where many loyal guests would say how much they wanted their favorite aspects to remain.

The reopening menu will start with the usual spring entrees, but include some updates, like a scallop dish with lobster goat cheese risotto, Executive Chef Dan Hudson said.

With St. Patrick’s Day right after the reopening, the weekend menu will feature a boiled dinner that includes classic corned beef.

Although workers were still racing about on Thursday morning, Canny said the project was right on schedule and ready to open on time.

“We’re just really excited to get people back in here,” she said. “It’s so much more exciting and dynamic when guests are here.”

Land of the Lakers: Skaneateles hockey beats Queensbury to capture state championship

BUFFALO — In the waning minutes of the state championship game, Skaneateles hockey’s Ryan Gick looked to his head coach Mitch Major and asked a simple question.

“Are we good enough yet?”

Even after a near-perfect regular season, a sectional title and a late lead in the state title game, the answer from Major was always no.

Once the final horn sounded, however, Major finally reversed his response. As the Lakers clinched the state title, the answer to Gick’s question was ultimately a resounding yes.

Skaneateles defeated Queensbury 6-1 Sunday in the NYSPHSAA Division II championship game at the HarborCenter in Buffalo to capture the program’s fourth state title and first since 2015.

“At the beginning of the year, coach said we’re not good enough, and all year he kept saying it,” Gick said. “With 30 seconds left I looked up and said, ‘Coach are we good enough?’ and he said no, and threw me out there for the last 15 seconds.

“I was actually playing defense which I never play. When the puck came to me I took a slap shot in panic, and I looked over at coach and yelled, ‘Are we good enough?’ ‘Yes, yes we are.’”

Returning to the state title game after a two-year absence, Skaneateles made the most of its opportunity, outscoring and outplaying almost every team that crossed its path in 2018-19. The Lakers were the state’s top-ranked team from the start of the season to the end and validated that standing with a dominant performance over Queensbury.

“There’s been the ups and downs to it, but we fought through them,” said Bauer Morrissey, the state tournament’s most valuable player. “Coach has a saying that there’s a storm and we have to embrace it and go over it. I think we did that really well this year.”

Gick’s goal only two minutes into the second period was the beginning of another stellar performance for the winger and his two linemates, Luke Lynn and Cole Heintz — both Heintz and Lynn added tallies later in the second to put Skaneateles ahead 3-0 after two periods. Lynn, Garrett Krieger and Jack Henry each tacked on another goal in the third to secure the championship.

While Skaneateles boasts a deep forward lineup, it was the combination of Gick, Heintz and Lynn that carried the offense throughout sectionals and the state tournament. In the Lakers’ final two games, the trio combined to score eight goals.

“They just like each other and sometimes just liking each other helps,” Major said. “They just got better and better. Halfway through the year they weren’t really producing, but they were our leaders and they stepped up. Sometimes people quit on their goals and get frustrated, and I just told them I’m so proud of the fact that they never quit.”

Lynn, the team’s captain, described the line like it’s a brotherhood.

“We’re really close. We’re like brothers,” Lynn said. “Friends off the ice and on the ice. It’s just been awesome to do it with those two. I couldn’t be happier playing with them.”

While each season and each team, good or bad, takes on its own flavor, this moment is particularly special for Major. Now a three-time state champion — once as a player and twice as a coach — Major was able to celebrate this one with his son, Charlie, an eighth-grade forward who was far too young to be on the 2015 championship team.

“It’s a special moment … a different special,” Major said. “The whole team is special to me and they’re all like my kids, but obviously Charlie’s effort tonight and his grit — he played like a warrior and as a dad I was very proud.”

Now the Lakers will return home to Skaneateles, welcomed back as champions. 

“I grew up in Skaneateles. My whole family was here,” Major said. “It’s just awesome to be able to bring another state championship back to Skaneateles and say, ‘Hey, we’re still on the map here.’ This is important to the community and it’s been important to me since I was born. It’s definitely a special moment.”