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Staff Writer
Jack Beckett is a staff writer for The Farmington Mercury, covering the police log, town government, land use and development across Farmington. He reads the arrest logs and the meeting records.
Answer an honest complaint in a few calm lines, and never offer anything for a changed review. A burst of bad ratings followed by a demand for money may be a scam: report it, don't pay.
Jack Beckett·Oct 28, 2026
Bond was $2,500, nonsurety, and the log gives the police station as the place of arrest without saying what happened.
Jack Beckett·Oct 27, 2026
Three DUI arrests in under five hours Saturday night into Sunday, two larceny warrants served on one New Britain man Friday, and a Thursday with no arrests.
Jack Beckett·Oct 26, 2026
Sending only your happy customers to Google to leave a review breaks Google's rules. Give the link to everyone.
Jack Beckett·Oct 26, 2026
Working from outside spares the house's finished second floor and attic, the architect said, and no one voted against it.
Jack Beckett·Oct 24, 2026
On emergency early-dismissal days this school year, Farmington elementary students will go home closer to noon, about 90 minutes earlier than before. The district's letter near Nov.
Jack Beckett·Oct 24, 2026
Farmington's public schools have fewer students than at any time in at least 10 years, and most of the drop since 2024 is in the elementary schools. The district is weighing what to do with the room.
Jack Beckett·Oct 24, 2026
Farmington's registrars plan to hold the spring budget referendum at Town Hall only. The Town Council also passed a veterans' tax break and approved the school administrators' contract Oct. 13.
Jack Beckett·Oct 24, 2026
Borio has spent more than 30 years in public education, the district says, including four years as assistant principal at Pine Grove.
Jack Beckett·Oct 23, 2026
Ask every customer for a Google review, the same way each time. Google bans giving anything back for a review, even a drawing entry.
Jack Beckett·Oct 23, 2026
The second of the two logs lists no arrests, and the log does not say what led to the disorderly conduct arrest.
Jack Beckett·Oct 22, 2026
One of Google's rules is that the phone number on your listing must be under your business's direct control. Keep a number you own and answer as the main one.
Jack Beckett·Oct 21, 2026
Bond was $5,000, nonsurety, and the log does not say what was taken or from which store.
Jack Beckett·Oct 20, 2026
The log notes bond was posted in both cases, and it does not describe what happened in either one.
Jack Beckett·Oct 19, 2026
Your shop may be listed on Google, Yelp, Bing and Apple Maps even if you never set it up. Here is how to claim each listing so you can update it yourself.
Jack Beckett·Oct 19, 2026
Your neighborhood polling place opens only on Election Day, and you can register and vote in the same visit during early voting hours.
Jack Beckett·Oct 19, 2026
The criminal impersonation charge lists a bond of $.00, and the log does not say who or what she is accused of pretending to be.
Jack Beckett·Oct 17, 2026
From Memorial Day to Labor Day, community service officers put in 427 hours on the trails and in the parks and made 153 bike patrols.
Jack Beckett·Oct 16, 2026
Of the 15 registrations on file, 11 are now renewed, and one more, on New Britain Avenue, is still to come.
Jack Beckett·Oct 16, 2026
At their League of Women Voters forum, Rep. Jahana Hayes and Republican Chris Shea disagreed on the tax law, tariffs, military action in Iran and health care, and on how to change immigration policy.
Jack Beckett·Oct 16, 2026
Three Farmington precincts vote in races the rest of town doesn't see: the 22nd House District, Rebecca Martinez vs. Richard Mette, and the 6th Senate District, Rick Lopes vs. Tremell Collins.
Jack Beckett·Oct 16, 2026
The last two offices on Farmington's Nov. 3 ballot are settled by the ballot itself: state law seats both registrar candidates, and the probate judge is unopposed. Here is what each office does.
Jack Beckett·Oct 16, 2026
Five of Farmington's seven precincts choose a state representative between Mike Demicco, the Democrat first elected in 2012, and Gary Palumbo, a Republican and former Town Council member.
Jack Beckett·Oct 16, 2026
Bing, Microsoft's search engine, may already show a listing for your shop. You can claim it for free, but if you copy it from Google, Bing may copy Google's mistakes too.
Jack Beckett·Oct 16, 2026
Friday, Oct. 16, is the regular deadline to register for Farmington's Nov. 3 election. Early voting runs Oct. 19 through Nov.
Jack Beckett·Oct 15, 2026
Two logs, 48 hours, one arrest: Wednesday's log lists no arrests, and Thursday's lists one first-degree criminal trespass charge, with a $2,500 nonsurety bond.
Jack Beckett·Oct 15, 2026
Apple can change your Apple Maps listing after a customer reports a problem, and it tells you by email. Here is how to claim the listing so that email reaches you.
Jack Beckett·Oct 14, 2026
Three arrests over a five-day holiday stretch: a fourth first-degree trespass arrest for the same man, a Bristol 19-year-old facing five driving and alcohol charges with one bond between them, and a…
Jack Beckett·Oct 13, 2026
Google can build your listing partly from your own website. When the two disagree, fix whichever one is out of date.
Jack Beckett·Oct 12, 2026
Farmington's Inland Wetlands Commission approved repairs to the observation deck at the East Farms School pond, plus a ramp on the path to it, and a second driveway on Garden Street.
Jack Beckett·Oct 11, 2026
Three Farmington schools sent about 8,100 pounds of cafeteria food to compost between April and June, and the district wants to add its other elementary schools, probably in 2027-28.
Jack Beckett·Oct 11, 2026
An anonymous call led Farmington's wetlands agent to a tree crew cutting beside a wetland at 243 Brickyard Road. The cutting appears to stop just short of a protected easement, but the commission…
Jack Beckett·Oct 11, 2026
If residents want food-scrap collection, the town manager thinks it would probably be easy to put into the 2027-28 budget, the chair said.
Jack Beckett·Oct 11, 2026
Farmington's Fire Station Building Committee chose Silver Petrucelli + Associates to draw up designs and a cost estimate for three fire station projects ahead of a 2027 referendum.
Jack Beckett·Oct 11, 2026
Ryan Broderick, an assistant principal at Bristol Central High School, takes over Farmington High on Nov. 2, ending a fall under an interim who came out of retirement.
Jack Beckett·Oct 11, 2026
A Farmington sign saying a business is open, up to 12 square feet, needs no review. A planning commissioner wants limits on the sandwich boards that rule let in, and the town has to be careful about…
Jack Beckett·Oct 9, 2026
The short paragraph under “From the business” on your Google listing is yours to write. Google wants it about your business, not this week’s sale.
Jack Beckett·Oct 9, 2026
Farmington's town survey is set to open Friday, Oct. 9, and it feeds the town's next 10-year plan. It takes 15 to 20 minutes and can't be saved online. The first open house is Dec. 1.
Jack Beckett·Oct 9, 2026
The Farmington Police Department's arrest log for the 24 hours ending Thursday morning is blank, a day after one trespass arrest on Main Street.
Jack Beckett·Oct 8, 2026
A Bristol headstone carver says customers can't find his shop. Farmington just approved a row of his carved monuments outside a former frame shop on Route 6.
Jack Beckett·Oct 8, 2026
Farmington still has no rule for solar panels in the backyard. The planning commission asked for two competing versions: one that sends hard cases to the appeals board, and one that has the…
Jack Beckett·Oct 8, 2026
Bond was $1,500, nonsurety, and the log gives the place of the arrest but not what the trespass was.
Jack Beckett·Oct 7, 2026
Farmington's town survey will ask residents to rate the condition of the fire stations as the town plans a $30 million to $35 million overhaul.
Jack Beckett·Oct 7, 2026
If the top photo on your Google listing is low quality, Google may show someone else’s instead. Google wants every photo sharp, well lit and true to the place.
Jack Beckett·Oct 7, 2026
One arrest in the 24 hours ending Tuesday morning: a 22-year-old Farmington resident, on a warrant listing four charges, including engaging police in pursuit.
Jack Beckett·Oct 6, 2026
The Plan and Zoning Commission will hear a rezoning for 18 active-adult homes at 598 Plainville Avenue and three home food businesses on Oct. 26.
Jack Beckett·Oct 6, 2026
The bonds add up to $6,400, and the only cash one, $1,400, is attached to a driving-under-the-influence charge.
Jack Beckett·Oct 5, 2026
Google says the website link on your listing should lead to your own business. A Facebook page isn’t a website; it goes under Social profiles.
Jack Beckett·Oct 5, 2026
The final phases of a subdivision off Snowberry Lane, a project that traces back to a 1994 court decree, won approval with conditions to repair protected land a construction entrance appears to cross.
Jack Beckett·Oct 5, 2026
Two commissioners who voted no pointed to the store's spot beside the rail trail and near a playground. The only members of the public who spoke against it own rival liquor businesses.
Jack Beckett·Oct 3, 2026
One arrest in the 24 hours ending Friday morning: an East Haven man, 31, on a warrant for third-degree larceny, a felony, served at the police station.
Jack Beckett·Oct 2, 2026
Google lets you tell customers your hours for each holiday ahead of time, and it suggests doing it even when your hours stay the same. A closing of eight days or more takes a different setting.
Jack Beckett·Oct 2, 2026
The survey will guide the Town Council's strategic plan and the zoning commission's next ten-year Plan of Conservation and Development.
Jack Beckett·Oct 2, 2026
A concrete plant, a gravel yard, a Midas and several small manufacturers are among 15 Farmington properties registered to work with hazardous materials over ground that feeds public water wells.
Jack Beckett·Oct 2, 2026
Where the federal maps now say floods run lower, Farmington kept its own building heights. Some homeowners who won an exemption from the flood zone years ago will lose it without a word from FEMA…
Jack Beckett·Oct 1, 2026
The Farmington Police Department's last three arrest logs, covering 7 a.m. Sept. 25 through 7 a.m. Oct. 1, are blank. A fourth, Tuesday into Wednesday, had not been posted as of Thursday morning.
Jack Beckett·Oct 1, 2026
Kosta Diamantis, the former state school-construction chief who fled to Greece, was sentenced to seven years. The Meadow Road house he put up for bail passes to the federal government Friday, along…
Jack Beckett·Sep 30, 2026
The category on your Google listing tells Google what kind of business you are, and Google says it affects where you show up in nearby searches.
Jack Beckett·Sep 30, 2026
Extra words like your town or your trade in your business name on Google could get your listing suspended. Use the name on your sign and nothing more.
Jack Beckett·Sep 28, 2026
Three budgeted kindergarten teachers were never needed, so Farmington Public Schools ended 2025-26 with $248,435 unspent.
Jack Beckett·Sep 26, 2026
Over 90 to 120 days, EdAdvance will survey parents, students and teachers, audit three weeks of network traffic and walk through up to 200 classrooms before the district decides how much screen time…
Jack Beckett·Sep 26, 2026
Farmington Public Schools invoked the penalty clause in its Specialty Transportation contract after a "highly disappointing" start to the year: $100 for every split or doubled bus run.
Jack Beckett·Sep 26, 2026
Farmington's draft town survey asks residents how high a priority it should be to increase tax dollars in 19 areas. A town committee reviews that half of the survey Wednesday, and the launch date is…
Jack Beckett·Sep 26, 2026
Both arrests in the 24 hours ending Friday morning belong to one man: a Wethersfield man, 47, arrested on two warrants at the West Farm Shopping Center an hour and 45 minutes apart, and held on bond…
Jack Beckett·Sep 25, 2026
Before the pool went up at 12 Lake Garda Drive, its owner checked with Farmington's planning office. The town's map had the property line in the wrong place, and a permit review step was never…
Jack Beckett·Sep 25, 2026
Whoever proves your business to Google becomes an owner of your Google listing, and owners can remove people or delete it. Keep the top owner seat on an account the business controls.
Jack Beckett·Sep 24, 2026
The Farmington Police Department's arrest log for the 24 hours ending Thursday morning is empty. A day earlier it carried one arrest, a warrant for sixth-degree larceny.
Jack Beckett·Sep 24, 2026
Farmington's zoning rules say nothing about solar panels in the yard, and the planning commission takes up a draft Monday. The elected Zoning Board of Appeals has asked it to wait.
Jack Beckett·Sep 24, 2026
One arrest in the 24 hours ending Wednesday morning: a Hartford woman, 58, on a warrant for sixth-degree larceny, the lowest of the state's six larceny degrees. Bond was $2,000, and she posted it.
Jack Beckett·Sep 23, 2026
None of the four lives in Farmington, the ordinary case: of 1,496 log entries over three years, 272 list a Farmington or Unionville address.
Jack Beckett·Sep 22, 2026
Residents told a Green Efforts Committee member they would compost "when the town's paying for it." The committee priced a one-year food-scrap pilot at $12,484 and has roughly $30,000 of its own, but…
Jack Beckett·Sep 22, 2026
Farmington's zoning commission let the owner of a long-vacant office at 1422 Farmington Avenue turn it into a two-family home under Connecticut's new housing law, then adopted the town's own version…
Jack Beckett·Sep 21, 2026
A resident asked the Green Efforts Committee whether to wait on a home battery until after 2027. The deadline behind the question had been repealed three months earlier.
Jack Beckett·Sep 20, 2026
Both earlier Farmington arrests were for sixth-degree larceny, and the log lists both new counts as failure to appear on pending charges.
Jack Beckett·Sep 18, 2026
The Farmington Police Department's arrest log for the 24 hours ending Thursday morning is empty. No names, no charges, no bonds. The day before, it carried two arrests.
Jack Beckett·Sep 18, 2026
The Next Chapters Bookhouse opened Sept. 3 at 218 River Road in Unionville, three months after it cleared zoning as a parking calculation.
Jack Beckett·Sep 17, 2026
The log notes bond was posted in both cases, and it does not describe what happened in either one.
Jack Beckett·Sep 16, 2026
The log covering 7 a.m. Monday through 7 a.m. Tuesday is blank. It prints the column headings, then stops. No arrests, no charges, no bonds, no court dates, one day after a page that carried five…
Jack Beckett·Sep 15, 2026
"People are not going to live in homes that they can't heat." A commissioner said that out loud on September 3, during an argument set off by a state training video almost nobody has watched.
Jack Beckett·Sep 15, 2026
The arrest log covering 7 a.m. Friday through 7 a.m. Monday records five arrests, including two at Westfarms Mall twenty-two minutes apart on the same incident number.
Jack Beckett·Sep 14, 2026
Four disabled veterans in Farmington would stop paying property tax on their homes under an ordinance change the Town Council sent to a public hearing without discussion.
Jack Beckett·Sep 14, 2026
Farmington police published a third straight blank arrest log Friday morning. Seven of the last twelve logs carry no arrests at all, and every one of those blanks has come since the page covering the…
Jack Beckett·Sep 11, 2026
The Farmington Police Department's arrest log for the 24 hours ending Thursday morning is empty, the second blank page in a row. The town's last recorded arrests were the seven on the long-weekend log.
Jack Beckett·Sep 11, 2026
Farmington police are stopping juveniles on e-bikes in Unionville, and the town told the council new state rules arrive October 1.
Jack Beckett·Sep 11, 2026
The state expects to close Route 10 through Farmington for about two weeks next summer to replace a culvert built in 1924.
Jack Beckett·Sep 10, 2026
Today is Oliver Mangham Day in Farmington. Tomorrow is Liam Morrell Day. The Town Council named both on Tuesday night, for the newest Eagle Scouts out of Troop 170: one rebuilt the bullpens and…
Jack Beckett·Sep 10, 2026
The Ad Hoc Sidewalk Committee told the Town Council there are 48 miles of sidewalk in Farmington, 11 percent of it rated D or F, and about $18 million to repair all of it.
Jack Beckett·Sep 9, 2026
The Farmington Police Department's arrest log for the 24 hours ending Wednesday morning is empty. No names, no charges, no bonds. A day earlier the page carried seven records.
Jack Beckett·Sep 9, 2026
Farmington police published seven arrest records covering the Labor Day weekend, after four straight blank pages. Four of the five people named were charged with driving under the influence, three of…
Jack Beckett·Sep 8, 2026
The Farmington Inland Wetlands Commission voted twice on Sept. 2 that a project was "not a significant activity." The phrase is not among the 33 terms its own regulations define.
Jack Beckett·Sep 7, 2026
The Farmington Libraries launched a hunt for 50 green rubber ducks in public spaces. Find one, check in at a branch, and keep it.
Jack Beckett·Sep 6, 2026
Farmington police published a blank arrest log for the fourth straight weekday, covering 7 a.m. Monday through 7 a.m. Friday with no arrests recorded.
Jack Beckett·Sep 4, 2026
Farmington police published their arrest log Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. All three were one page and all three were blank, covering 72 straight hours in which the department recorded no arrests…
Jack Beckett·Sep 3, 2026
Farmington's resident survey opens in early October and asks what people are willing to pay for. The first tax bills built on the town's new property assessments arrive nine months later.
Jack Beckett·Sep 3, 2026
Paper signs are still taped to the walls of Farmington's new town hall. The town manager said in May that signage would be first in line for the capital money that opened July 1.
Jack Beckett·Sep 1, 2026
Farmington police listed one arrest for the three days ending Monday morning: a 20-year-old Burlington man charged under the state's under-21 drunk driving statute, which sets the limit at .02 rather…
Jack Beckett·Aug 31, 2026
The bakery at 767 Farmington Avenue turns 16 on Tuesday, September 1, with two sandwiches for $16 and a Birthday Cake Latte made for the day.
Jack Beckett·Aug 30, 2026
Farmington police listed one arrest for the twenty-four hours ending Friday morning: a 19-year-old New Britain woman charged with failure to appear in the second degree, on a re-arrest warrant, with…
Jack Beckett·Aug 28, 2026
Farmington police arrested a 34-year-old Unionville man on a DUI charge at 3:58 a.m. Wednesday on Tunxis Mead Road. He posted a $5,000 nonsurety bond, according to the log.
Jack Beckett·Aug 26, 2026
Farmington Public Schools opens the 2026-27 year on Monday, August 31, with early dismissals on the first two days. The Mercury's new calendar page has every no-school day, conference window…
Jack Beckett·Aug 25, 2026
