All Over Albany

Schenectady surplus, cotton candy man quits, parking meters for Troy?, clown class graduates

The City of Schenectady has a budget surplus for the third consecutive year, ending up with more than $8 million left over from last year. As recently as 2004 a state auditor had warned the city it would run out of money mid-year. [Daily Gazette]

The glitch that kept people from placing Kentucky Derby bets at local Capital Region OTBs has been blamed on "operator error" at the company which totals up the number and amounts of bets for the system. OTB -- and the municipalities with which it shares revenues -- will be reimbursed for the lost revenue. [TU]

A community board has called for the Town of Malta to keep a close eye on the environmental regulation of the proposed AMD chip fab plant. The company has asked for a zoning change that would decrease the town's involvement with environmental monitoring for the project. [Daily Gazette]

The guy who's been accused of making cotton candy laced with ant poison (unintentionally, it seems), says he'll no longer make the sticky stuff. [TU]

Troy is considering parking meters for downtown. [Troy Record]

A one dollar surcharge has been approved for taxi rides from the airport -- if gas prices drop below $3.25, the surcharge goes away. [TU]

Saratoga Springs city council meetings are going paperless. The agenda and associated documents will be available to council members on laptops. The city's commissioner of accounts says city hall used 475 cubic feet of paper last year. [Saratogian]

A class of clowns graduated from HVCC yesterday.