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]

Comments

I lived next door to the chicken wing strip mall for a few years, and crazy things happened regularly in the neighborhood—stores got robbed at gunpoint; there was a morning drunk driving accident and a murder in my building that caused a news crew camp-out; a couple of GPD car accidents; and my gas station was raided by the FBI, just to name a few.

In general, it was a nice area. But when I moved in, I thought the weirdest thing about living there would be explaining to visitors why the building owner kept military tanks in the back lot.

At least the Schenectady police chief isn't making any excuses for totally unacceptable behavior, unlike here in Albany where cops (*cough*[name withheld]*cough*) quite literally get away with murder.
http://tuweb1a.timesunion.com/specialreports/shooting/

Editors: this comment has been edited.

OMG!! Guilderland is dangerous?? Thats it... I'm moving my kids to another suburban school district. Anyone have suggestions? There's no way letting my kids around sleepy delivery drivers.

Nice, MissCeeBee... you obviously have no clue what the words "literally" or "murder" mean. Someone getting killed by bullets accidentally in a crossfire is not murder.
That was a bad situation, and the actions of the police officers can definitely be considered questionable. But to accuse them of intentionally shooting a bystander (yeah, murder is intentional) is a pretty strong charge. Do you have evidence, or do you just get off on committing libel?

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