According to police statistics, there were 101 incidents of larceny in 2010, rising to 117 in 2011. In 2012, that statistic climbed to 163. As one may suspect, Northborough Crossing can be attributed to the rise in larceny calls the Northborough Police Department incurs, according to Lt. Bill Lyver. While the shopping center created economic growth, and attraction to the town, as with any shopping center, adds to the crime statistics.  "Since it didn’t exist as a retail location in 2010, there were only a few thefts from the construction site," said Lyver. "In 2011, retails shops began to …

There is a category included on incident types reported by the police department that is referred to as "annoying calls." That seemed rather ambiguous. Annoying calls in some households could apply to a mother-in-law, or to others, debt collectors legitimately trying to collect a debt. Not so. Brian Griffin, Det. Sgt. of the Northborough Police Department, said that more than half of the incidents in 2012 that involved anything "annoying or unwanted" was in the form of a text message. In 2012, incidents that fell under the category "annoying calls" totaled at 19, as compared with 16 in 2011 …

Twice each year, Fire Chief David Durgin submits a breakdown of the Northborough Fire Department's activities to the Board of Selectmen and administration. Here, we share with you some of the highlights. Between July and December of 2012, the fire department responded to 1,061 incidents, which can be broken into 478 fire responses and 583 requests for emergency medical services. "As with past reports, weather continues to be a major driver of the department's services," wrote Durgin, "with Hurricane Sandy resulting in 17 storm-related responses and the October Nor'Easter with 37 requests for …

While future growth is expected to decline, Northborough's books reported $92.9 million in new growth valuation for FY2013. As part of a report presented recently by Town Administrator John Coderre, these new growth valuations were broken into categories.  Here are the FY2013 new growth values (in millions): Residential: $16.6 Commercial: $55.4Industrial: $2.2Total Real Estate Growth: $74.2Personal Property: $18.7 Total valuation increased $12.6 million in FY2013 to $2.49 billion. Once again, noted Coderre, there has been "significant benefit from economic development." Coderre also noted …

Northborough has enjoyed a period of growth, particularly commercially, in the last few years, as was demonstrated by a recent presentation by Town Administrator John Coderre. As part of the presentation, Coderre shared a list of the town's top 15 taxpayers in FY2013. Here is the list of proposed taxes for FY2013. 1. Northborough Crossing, $1,719,4332. Avalon Bay Communities, $855,9183. Whitney Street and Forbes Road, $483,4144. National Grid, $453,4555. Iron Mountain Info. Mgmt., $390,4556. Saint-Gobain Corp. (Norton Company), $309,7137. FedEx Smart Post, $308,2738. FedEx Ground, $269,2539. …

Based on a report given to the Board of Selectmen at the end of August, the Northborough Fire Department responded to 902 emergency incidents from January through June of this year. Those incidents can be broken down into 411 fire responses and 491 requests for emergency medical services. The mild winter, fallen debris from Tropical Storm Irene, the Nor'Easter in October and the "abnormally dry conditions" throughout the spring made for an unprecedented forest fire danger, said Fire Chief David Durgin in his report. "This presented a unique situation in balancing burning and public safety, …

While customers still without power are undoubtedly frustrated, National Grid has restored a large portion of homes originally hit by the outage during Hurricane Sandy. The number at 10 a.m. on Wednesday sits at 674 still withouth. National Grid serves 6,559 Northborough customers. Debbie Drew, spokesperson for National Grid, said crews are out in full force working on restoration. Remaining areas without service are concentrated south of Route 20 near the Northborough border, and also close to Route 9. There are two "feeder lines" presenting trouble, said Drew, and one has approximately 500 …

There are a certain number of liquor licenses granted to a town, based on population. Northborough has a quota of 15 liquor licenses and five malt and wine licenses it can grant to local establishments. It has now reached its quota, after granting licenses to Mikaku and the new Zem Han restaurants at the Board of Selectmen meeting on Monday night.  Both owners expressed its concern over losing business due to having no alcohol. Yuri Krasnov, one of the owners of Zem Han, was granted approval last week by the Zoning Board of Appeals to request a second approval by the Board of Selectmen. …

In some towns, municipal law dictates a maximum on the number of pets, namely dogs and cats, allowed per household. Some municipalities, too, have issued breed-specific ordinances.  In Northborough, there are technically no restrictions at this time. There is no maximum to the number of cats that can live in a household, and though at one time, Health Agent Jamie Terry said, the dog limit was six, it's presently unrestricted. Still, hoarding situations occur, and health and humane regulations are enforced. If an unsanitary, hoarding situation is occurring that poses a health risk to humans …

Earlier this month, Patch asked Northborough drivers to "sound off" about where people tend to speed the most in town. Among the answers were Davis Ave. and Maple Street. According to Northborough Police Chief Mark Leahy, since Jan. 1 of this year, 1,278 speeding citations have been issued in Northborough. And in 2010, 1,399 were issued citations for speeding in Northborough, up to 1,773 in 2011. "The most heavily enforced streets are Church Street and Davis Street," said Leahy. So where do the cops hide with the radar guns? Leahy, of course, won't divulge the officers' favorite spots, but …

This information, as presented on the Northborough Free Library's website, shines a light on the number of items lent out, borrowed and visitors last year. In 2011, the library: Lent out 216,628 items Borrowed 19,671 items from other libraries on behalf of our patrons Provided 10,139 hours of Internet access, not counting laptop users Answered 10,127 reference questions Had 124,987 visitors Provided meeting room space on 393 occasions Do you support your library? Do you ever visit? Check out books or DVDs? What programs are your favorites?

Smashed mailboxes, graffiti, broken headstones ... though there is not a lot of it, Northborough's vandalism record is not completely unblemished. This week's "By the Numbers" focuses on the Northborough police's calls for vandalism. In 2010, there were 70 noted calls for the year, which declined in 2011 to 52.

It's summer, and the police log gives way to more residents calling about black bears near their pool, barking dogs, ducks in the road, foxes and coyotes in the yard, and moose at the gas station. OK, the moose reference isn't true, but the rest are. According to statistics kept by the Northborough Police Department, the number of "animal calls" in 2010 was 108 and that number took a dip in 2011 with 80 calls. In light of the recent incident that resulted in a policeman shooting a family dog in Texas, we asked Chief Mark Leahy how Northborough police deals with animal calls in our recent "…

Based on numbers from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR), the Worcester Business Journal reported that the number of single-family homes and condominiums that were placed under a sales agreement rose in May. That's the 13th month that sales activity has gone up in state real estate. The MAR states that pending sales are a leading indicator of "actual housing sales, and that the number of homes placed under agreement surpassed the 5,000 mark for the first time since the organization began tracking the data in January 2009," according to the WBJ. In Northborough, the statistics …

A little more than a year ago, Health Agent Jamie Terry sent a letter to all residents in Northborough who may have a private bedrock well. The reason? A U.S. Geological Survey released a study indicating that naturally occurring arsenic and uranium levels may exceeddrinking water standards in some private drinking water wells in central or northeaster Massachusetts, including Northborough. "Although the public health risk associated with the findings of this report are very low in regard to both of the analyzed materials, it is strongly recommended that you have your water tested for arsenic…

“Family Offense” is an internal call classification, specific to Northborough, that includes incidents involving a range of things such as domestic abuse, child in need of services, substance abuse and mental health issues. "It's family arguments, household acrimony or other circumstances that come to the attention of the police as a result of a call for service," Lt. Bill Lyver. "This category does not include crimes such as child neglect, abuse or sexual abuse and assault that does not involve family members." In 2011, Northborough police logged 121 calls for family offenses (with 33 of …

In this week's By the Numbers, which is also part of our Cop Stats series, we take a look at the number of reported larceny bookings in both 2010 and 2011. On the flip side, there are people who return found property, too. In 2011, statistics show that the Northborough police responded to 101 calls for larceny, compared with 117 in 2011. In 2011, 59 people found property, and returned it, whereas in 2010 only 47 people turned things in. That could mean that fewer people lost their items, too.

As part of Northborough Patch's "cop stats" features, this week we take a look at violations pertaining to littering and illegal dumping. In 2010, seven incidences were cited by the Northborough Police Department compared with 12 in 2011. While this may be a relatively small number, Chief Mark Leahy said that the violation is still taken seriously. There are all kinds of litterbugs. That's what inspired the eruption of Earth Day, of course, and why Northborough has plans for its annual town clean-up. And technically, there is a fine. If you throw a McDonald's bag out onto the roadway, for …

Rifling through the lengthy K-8 Northborough public schools budget for fiscal 2013, Superintendent Charles Gobron reiterated the financial figures settled on for the next school year. The public hearing brought several people to the audience, but none opposed or commented on the $19,495,277 budget. This fiscal 2013 budget represents a 4.24 percent increase over last year. The total for teacher salaries rose by 3.36 percent, and teacher specialists 4.75 percent, which included an addition of a part-time ELL teacher, and two instructional aide positions were also added—positions that were …

Cops do catch the bad guys, usually. But the day in the life of a police officer isn't always pulling over speeders and locking up robbers. Many times, patrolmen head out to local businesses, properties and homes to simply "check" on them, prompted by concerns or alarms. In this week's By the Numbers, which is also part of our Cop Stats series, we take a look at the number of reported business checks as well as house visits. In 2011, Northborough police counted 8,110 building and property checks as compared to 8,084 in 2010. In 2010, numbers indicated 1,743 business checks. House checks …