editorials

There is a lot of history in the walls at Faith United Methodist Church. The congregations that make up the church date back 160 years in Farmington. Generations of families have worshiped there. The congregation has occupied its current building since 1958. It’s not surprising,...

The Farmington School District’s new flexible learning days are pretty clearly a work in progress. When the district held its first on President’s Day in an attempt to make up some of the teaching time lost to frigid weather this winter there were concerns about teachers assigning...

How lean are things these days at Rosemount’s food shelf? Consider the spaghetti sauce. The pasta topping is usually a staple at the food shelf. It’s something they always have in abundance. Except now they don’t. There’s hardly any there. The cupboards might not be bare,...

On Monday night the Farmington City Council and the Farmington School Board both held workshop meetings. Both groups addressed issues that will affect finances and other aspects of the organizations those boards represent. There was an important difference between the meetings, though. ...

Farmington’s Special Olympics program is not new, but over the years it has perhaps not been as well used as it should be. With some luck and a lot of hard work, that could change. The local group has been making a push to expand its reach in the city, and we think that’s a good...

Crime happens even in seemingly quiet suburbs like Farmington and Rosemount. That’s not a surprise. Perhaps slightly more surprising is the idea that crime happens on the scale recorded on the front page of this week’s Independent Town Pages. Over the course of several months...

That a recent feasibility study found a market for a hotel in Farmington shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. There are plenty of people who have been saying for years that the city needs a place for out-of-town visitors to stay. A hotel would make it easier for local athletic...

It wasn’t all that long ago housing construction was booming in Farmington and Rosemount. Acres of land were transformed in seemingly a matter of months from open fields to new neighborhoods. Local farmers had developers knocking on their doors offering huge amounts for their property. That...

No one is likely to accuse the Farmington School District of being afraid to try new things. Last year, the district implemented a plan to put an iPad in the hands of every student. There was a learning curve there, but teachers figured out interesting ways to use the tablet computers...

This has been an unusual year for us here at the Independent Town Pages, and that name right there is a big part of it. Back in March, as you likely know, we went from publishing two weekly newspapers to one. It was a cost-saving measure, and one we didn’t make rashly. Our focus...

With the 2014 Winter Olympics — official motto: Everybody’s Second-Favorite Olympics — just a few months away, it seems like everybody’s getting into the spirit. The Olympic torch is making its way around the world and even into space on its way to Sochi, Russia. Athletes...

North Trail Elementary School principal Steven Geis has a problem when he talks to other principals about the guardian angel who has adopted his school. Inevitably, the people in his audience want to know how they can go about recruiting their own guardian angel. And Geis doesn’t...

Farmington’s annual Patriotic Day celebration is a pretty remarkable event. At its core, it’s an opportunity for a community to pay tribute to its veterans, but it’s a lot more than that. The event does a lot to bring Farmington residents together. It includes a free community...

It should go without saying, we think, that incidents of domestic violence are unacceptable. And yet, such incidents happen far too often. They happen often enough that there is a month — October — set aside to raise awareness of the issue. Enough that a flag meant to fly in...

It’s easy to think of Farmington and Rosemount as safe places. By and large they are. They’re the kinds of places where serious crime is an afterthought, not an everyday presence. Crime statistics bear that out. So, for the most part, does the reality of everyday life. But...