By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM -- The village Board of Trustees had to table action on a zoning change request Monday when one trustee abstained due to a family connection in the matter.

Developer Steve Pinkerton can't move his proposed Taco Bell restaurant forward without a zoning change from residential to commercial for a plot of land at 3 Sisson St. That property would become part of the restaurant site, along with the Scott Ford property next to it on Market Street.

But Nick Sheehan, one of only three board members at the Monday night meeting, abstained from the vote because his parents, James and Michelle Sheehan, are the current owners of the 3 Sisson St. parcel.

The other two board members present, trustees Steve Warr and Eleanor Hopke, even with both votes, would not constitute a legal voting quorum, so the measure was tabled.

Mayor Ron Tischler is away on vacation and returns to Potsdam on Tuesday. Former mayor and current trustee Ruth Garner, who turns 101 years of age this month, has been to few meetings this year. Trustee Warr said the matter would be taken up again when Tischler returns.

Toward the end of the meeting, according to Trustee Warr, Frederick "Hank" Robar questioned why the board would consider "spot zoning" for the Taco Bell but wouldn't when he wanted to have a donut shop allowed on some Market Street property he owns in a residential area.

Robar has been protesting a zoning vote that did not go his way several years ago by erecting public displays of bathroom plumbing on that and other properties he owns.