All Over Albany

Cities line up infrastructure projects, Schenectady cop suspected of catching Zzzz instead of crooks, Saratoga rec center project moves forward, delivery driver plows into strip mall

Local leaders say much of the federal stimulus money headed this way will be spent on infrastructure projects. Troy mayor Harry Tutunjian noted that much of the infrastructure in his city is 120-years-old. [Troy Record] [Saratogian] [TU]

The Daily Gazette reports that Schenectady's highest-paid police officer has been spending a chunk of each Tuesday's shift inside an apartment, possibly sleeping. The Gazette's observation was confirmed by department records from the GPS unit in the cop's car. Said Schenectady's police chief: "How dumb can you be? You know you have a GPS in your car. Why would anybody do that?" The officer in question made $168,921 last year -- that's about triple his base salary -- because of enormous amounts of overtime. [Daily Gazette] [TU]

An Albany police sergeant has been suspended pending the investigation into the possibly delayed arrest of an APD detective who allegedly had been driving while intoxicated. [TU]

The plane that crashed last week in Buffalo had been in Albany the day before. A witness says he saw a crew performing an engine test on the plane as it sat at the gate at ALB. [TU]

Saratoga Springs' city council voted to hire a Halfmoon company to construct the South Side Recreation Center. Bast-Hatfield's bid was the lowest of all the submitted bids, about $1 million less than the amount bonded for the project. People are still upset the project is moving forward. [Daily Gazette] [Saratogian] [WNYT]

A group of good government orgs reported yesterday that most political money in New York State comes from a small handful of individuals and interest groups. [TU]

Albany International Corp says it lost almost $76 million last year. [Biz Review]

Police departments in the region are looking into whether a rash of night bank deposit robberies are connected. Similar robberies have gone down in Colonie, Guilderland and Saratoga County recently. [TU]

An indictment related to a 2007 slashing in downtown Albany was dismissed yesterday after the defendant's lawyer argued that his client had never been to Albany. The man, who lives in North Carolina, had been identified by the victim from a MySpace photo. [TU]

Police say a delivery driver for a wing joint ran his car into the front of a Guilderland strip mall after falling asleep at the wheel. [CapNews9]

Two Skidmore faculty committees have recommended are considering whether the college should end University Without Walls, a long-running distance education program. [Post-Star] [Daily Gazette]