Farmington Police Department

FARMINGTON — The Farmington Police Department is compiling a new section for its Website that officers hope will provide information on resources not directly tied to the department.

The new community resources section of farmingtonpd.com is a work in progress, according to Lt. Kevin Willey, who is taking submissions from the community for the new section.

“We receive phone calls all the time from people on things that are not law issues,” said Willey. “As a small town, the police department serves as a catch-all social services agency. We want to have a resources section set aside on the Website so people can check that out.”

Willey wants the community resources section something of an electronic handbook that residents can refer to whenever something comes up not related to crime or actions of the police department.

He said other communities provide links to other agencies on their website, and Farmington does the same now, but he wants to take it a step further. The website’s frequently asked questions section is currently sizable, Willey said, and this will allow residents to view all their available resources in one place.

“We want to include a breakdown on each resource,” he said. “There’s going to be an explanation of what the resources provide. It will say, ‘For this, go here.’”

Willey provided some examples of the types of resources that will be included, like Strafford County Community Action, CHANCES and Community Partners among many others. He acknowledged this is a project that will take some time to complete and have it be an extended list of resources.

“It’s a fairly ambitious project,” he said. “It’s not going to be put together in short order. We want to put out the most accurate information possible.”

Willey got a major assist in this endeavor from the Farmington Community Preservation Program, a program of the Strafford Network. They produce a “Resource Guide for Farmington Residents” that contains much of the information Willey is looking for as part of the resource section.

Program Coordinator Heather Hesse-Stromberg updates the guide monthly and distributes it every six months to various sites in Farmington.

Willey is looking for items like web links or downloadable or viewable brochures for the community resources section.

Information on possible entries for the community resources section can be sent to Farmington Police’s webmaster at membrey (at) farmingtonpd (dot) com.

This article is from Foster’s Daily Democrat’s May 10, 2010 edition.