Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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The bagels are back in town: Upper Crust Bakery & Café opens Thursday morning in the former Brueggers space on South Avenue downtown. ***

Currently, 843 people belong to Spencer’s Run, New Canaan’s dog park at Waveny, and slightly more than half of those are nonresidents, Parks & Recreation Commissioner Rona Siegel reported on Wednesday night during the commission’s regular meeting. ***

The Board of Selectmen by a 2-0 vote Tuesday approved a $938,000 contract with FGB Construction to repave and otherwise improve the following town roads (First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectman Kit Devereaux cast votes, as Selectman Nick Williams was absent):

Huckleberry Road from Valley Road to the town line
Jonathan Road
Mill Road
Pepper Lane
Sagamore Trail
Siwanoy Lane
Summer Street from Lakeview to East Avenue and from Cross Street to Locust Avenue
Turning Mill Lane

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The photo gallery above features the newest aerial photos of the sports fields and track at New Canaan High School. ***

Town officials broke ground with Eversource on Wednesday for the company’s $25 million natural gas project. It will start with the installation of 4.7 miles of underground pipeline, making the fuel available to more than 500 homes and businesses.

Government

At Testy Meeting, Selectmen Create ‘Technology Advisory Committee’

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The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted 3-0 to create an advisory committee that will be charged with identifying and recommending the use of various technologies to make the town government run more efficiently and in more user-friendly ways for residents. The ‘Technology Advisory Committee’ will consist of five members—three Republicans and two Democrats—who will support New Canaan’s director of information technology, First Selectman Kevin Moyihan said, while working with department heads who rely on technology as “part of daily operations in many areas.”

“We have many online applications where citizens can do business in town, but I’m sure there are areas where we can improve,” Moynihan said at the meeting, held at Town Hall. “If you look at other towns or cities, you will find many applications are doing online things. We have some of those, we probably can do more simply by looking at what other towns and cities do. There are many vendors of Internet applications that you can buy.”

As an example, Moynihan said, the town pays about $100,000 per year in credit card fees by processing payments made at the Recreation and Parking departments, though many younger residents use free services such as Venmo.