On Friday, Amsterdam’s top police detective — Lieutenant Tom DiMezza — announced he will retire from the police force at the end of the month. DiMezza will continue as town of Amsterdam supervisor.

Asked about possibly running for Sheriff in the future, he said that was not in his current plans. DiMezza and District Attorney Jed Conboy have worked as a team on drug and major crime probes in Amsterdam and the city enjoys a low level of violent crime compared to other cities in the area such as Schenectady, Albany and Troy.

DiMezza says he presumes Lieutenant Al Kercado will be named Amsterdam detective chief, although there is no official confirmation. Kercado is an Iraq war veteran and is known for his Amsterdam city police work and his work investigating welfare fraud for Montgomery County.

Amsterdam might get a state government facility after lo these many years. The Amsterdam Industrial Development Agency is among those seeking to land a 300 job data center. If built in Amsterdam, AIDS’s Bob Quick says the facility would go on the former site of the Mohasco upper mill complex at Forest Avenue and Lyon Street.

This week’s topic in Focus on History in the Saturday Gazette has to do with Amsterdam’s rocket man — Apollo moon mission launch director Rocco Petrone. Next Saturday’s topics include the story of an Amsterdam native whose research helped create ultrasound imaging. With Saratoga in full swing, Wanda Burch of Johnson Hall in Johnstown provides us with stories of Colonial horse racing.

This week in Amsterdam the issue of the Chalmers mill was an ongoing news story in the papers and on the radio — there did seem to be less interest in the topic among callers to my WVTL radio show than usual.

I’ve always enjoyed Dan Dinicola’s movie reviews in the Daily Gazette and yes I generally like his politics too. We enjoyed Nora Ephron’s movie Julie and Julia as Dan said we would. Meryl Streep as Julia Child was outstanding. Makes me want to Google or Bing Julia and Paul Child — was he really a spy?

It’s a big weekend for festivities in the Mohawk Valley. Hagaman, Fultonville and Fonda all have village-wide garage sales today. Senator Hugh Farley is partnering (as they say in Albany) with the volunteer firefighters in Hagaman for a fire safety day. Saturday and Sunday Alpin Haus Canalfest music events are on tap at Riverlink Park in Amsterdam, plus Freedom Park in Scotia and the Mabee Farm in Rotterdam Junction. Sunday at noon it’s the annual Festival of Performing Arts at the Kane Building at Fonda fairgrounds.