The top 10 local news stories of the past year:

1: Three school budgets flunk

When voters went to the polls this year to decide on proposed public school district budgets, more than 92 percent of the spending plans in New York state passed. That's what made the voting in the Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES region so unique.

Three of the nine component school districts saw their budget proposals fail in May 20 voting, and in one of those districts - the Auburn Enlarged City School District - a second vote also resulted in voter rejection. Auburn was the only district to put the same budget that voters turned down back up for the re-vote; both the Southern Cayuga and Jordan-Elbridge central school districts made spending cuts to their original plans, and both secured voter support the second time around.

The voting certainly has had an impact on education program funding in the districts, especially in Auburn, where a state mandated contingency budget is now in place.

The initial voting results also compelled the boards of education in Auburn and Jordan-Elbridge to postpone June capital building project votes. J-E put its project back up for a vote in December with mixed results, as voters approved school building improvements but rejected athletic facility upgrades. Auburn has yet to put a new project in front of voters.

2: Tribal cigarette

dispute intensifies

The long-running story of legal disputes over sovereign rights and taxation issues between governments and the Cayuga Indian of New York continued again in 2008, but this year brought a new twist.

On a November morning just prior to Thanksgiving, the sheriff's offices of both Cayuga and Seneca counties executed search warrants at the Cayugas' convenience stores in Union Springs and Seneca Falls as part of an investigation into tax evasion allegations. The district attorneys in both counties contend that the tribe is violating state law by possessing and selling untaxed cigarettes, and they've stated their intention to eventually bring criminal charges against officials in the tribe.

State law enforcement officials declined to participate in the investigation.

The Cayugas challenged the raid and investigation in court, saying they do not have to collect cigarette taxes because their businesses operate on land that's part of a reservation. A state Supreme Court judge sided with the counties, but the matter is now pending in front of an appeals court. The tribe has shut down its stores while the legal matter is unresolved.

Meanwhile, Gov. David Paterson has just signed a law that would implement a new system for collecting cigarette taxes statewide, a law that has already been challenged in court and put on hold, at least temporarily.

3: Truckers parade through Auburn, Skaneateles

The always-busy Black Friday bustle in the village of Skaneateles was taken to a new level this year thanks to scores of tractor-trailer drivers who decided to drop by for a visit.

In protest of proposed state regulations that would limit long-haul trucks from using certain rural roads in the Finger Lakes region as shortcuts, about 200 truckers drove from the Waterloo Thruway Exit to Skaneateles on the morning after Thanksgiving. The trucks targeted Skaneateles because its leaders have been vocal in their support of restrictions. People lined village streets like they were watching a parade, many carrying signs supporting the trucks.

The trucks passed through Cayuga County on their way, and caused considerable traffic backups near the Fingerlakes Mall in Aurelius and in the city of Auburn. Police made one arrest on the day.

The trucking issue has been around for years as considerable garbage truck traffic has come to the region as a result of the Seneca Meadows landfill. Local officials had been lobbying federal and local governments for years for help in reducing trucks' usage of the roads, but new Gov. David Paterson was the first elected official to move forward with government restrictions when he came out with a proposal in May, and a revised proposal in October.

4: Mental health care changes

The past year was one of significant transition for mental health care in Cayuga County.

It started in February, when longtime mental health director David Blair agreed to retire after clashing with county manager Wayne Allen and some members of the county Legislature over his role and who oversaw him. Blair and the Legislature had also been under fire over outside sanctions that had limited funding to the county from the state.

As this was going on, the Legislature was also beginning plans for a new county mental health clinic, a project that has continued to move forward over the course of the year.

The county has relied on interim leadership for mental health services for the remainder of the year, but the current interim leader, Katharine O'Connell, will likely be named the permanent new leader.

Meanwhile, the only in-patient psychiatric unit in the county, the 14-bed department at Auburn Memorial Hospital, is getting a new facility within the main hospital building, and AMH has added new mental health care staff.

5: Hospital emerges from

bankruptcy

Auburn Memorial Hospital's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing was one of the top stories in 2007, but its operational turnaround and subsequent emergence from bankruptcy protection was what made headlines in 2008.

It started in January, when AMH learned that the state Department of Health was reversing a commission's earlier recommendation to close the maternity unit. The hospital not only received a reprieve on this matter, but it also secured state funding to help revamp the unit.

It was just one of many steps forward during the year. AMH launched a new ear, nose and throat practice, and it moved its mental health unit to revamped space within its main building. In fact, the entire facility went through a multi-million dollar, comprehensive upgrade.

AMH also made major strides in its bankruptcy reorganization, and it officially emerged from bankrupt status in the summer.

Through it all, the hospital that had once been losing millions of dollars was consistently operating in the black. Through November, AMH had posted an operating gain of $2.67 million.

6: City closes a fire station

The date was April 1, but this was no April Fool's joke. With no public warning, Auburn city manager Mark Palesh and Auburn Fire Chief Mike Hammon ordered the immediate closure of the Frederick Street station.

The leaders said the move to consolidate operations into the main downtown and Clark Street stations would increase efficiency and bring down costs. The firefighters union, which clashed with city managed throughout the year, strongly disagreed, and said the decision would compromise safety.

Palesh originally said the plan was to put the station on the real estate market, but when no sale materialized, the city decided to lease the facility to a local ambulance company.

7: Community mourns Marine's death

The war on terrorism became more than a CNN or New York Times news story this fall when Cayuga County native Sgt. Jerome C. Bell Jr., 29, was killed in Afghanistan on Sept. 19.

The story had a major impact on Bell's home community. From the massive procession of police vehicles and Patriot Guard motorcycle riders who escorted Bell's body to Auburn from the Syracuse airport, to the people who lined the streets both that day and the day Bell was laid to rest, a big part of the story was the public appreciation and support on display.

Bell, a Throop native and a Port Byron Central School District graduate, was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force. He was serving his third tour of duty in the Middle East.

8: Double-homicide details shock the region

It was one of the most gruesome cases law enforcement authorities had ever seen. A 27-year-old Elbridge man, Joseph Bisesi, had shot both of his parents in July and then proceeded to dispose of their bodies in a septic tank on their Elbridge property. He cut the arms and legs of his father's body off in order to fit it into the septic tank hole. A relative discovered the torso stuck in the standpipe.

Authorities originally charged Bisesi with first- and second-degree murder, which could have sent him to state prison for the rest of his life.

Instead, Bisesi is now in a state psychiatric facility as a result of a guilty plea by reason of insanity.

It turned out that Bisesi thought his parents were criminal impostors, and that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had given orders to kill them. His defense attorney said the paranoia was a result of an assault on Bisesi in 2005.

9: Roy Brown settles with the state

December brought the final chapter in the case of Roy Brown, the man who spent 15 years on a Cayuga County Court murder conviction only to be released when new DNA evidence cleared him in 2007.

Just prior to a trial that was to be held in the state Court of Claims in Syracuse, Brown and the state attorney general's office agreed to settle a wrongful imprisonment claim that Brown had filed. The two sides agreed to a $2.6 million payout. Brown had sought $5 million in his original complaint.

Earlier this fall, a court of claims judge had ruled that Brown was indeed entitled to some level of compensation, and a trial was scheduled to determine the amount.

10: Sennett restaurant owners

battle with town

An effort to overhaul the former Pioneer Restaurant property in Sennett into an ice cream, pizza and coffee shop turned into zoning saga that continues to this day.

The owners of the newly named Bonca's restaurant secured enough approvals from the town Zoning Board of Appeals in March to move forward with opening, or so they thought. The town board chose to take their own ZBA to court over the decision. Then, when a judge upheld the ZBA ruling, the town code enforcement officer refused to issue a certificate of occupancy, citing numerous violations and issues. Bonca's owners opened anyway, and appealed again to the ZBA. The ZBA came forward with a new set of approvals and variances, and Bonca's remains open. The town, however, has yet to issue the certificate of occupancy. Stay tuned in 2009.