Canaan/Falls Village Board of Selectmen: New Strategic Planning Software Offered

6/8/26 6:00 PM

Present: First Selectman David Barger, Selectmen Christopher Kinsella, Judy Jacobs.

A software program to help municipal governments best manage their roadways could be coming to the Town of Canaan/Falls Village.

The town’s board of selectmen discussed possibly contracting with New Jersey-based software company Vialytics, which enables municipalities to record and manage the condition of road infrastructure. According to the company’s website, the software can also help plan repairs based on the most up-to-date data and help centrally manage all maintenance tasks.

“That is a computer program that looks at our roadways, counts our trees along roadways,” Barger said. “We can put in a great deal of information about when we last had a pothole in a particular road and when we last paved that road.”

Barger said he met with Canaan/Falls Village Bridge and Infrastructure Committee member Tim Downs to discuss the potential use of the software. Vialytics could help the town with its capital improvement plans, Barger said.

“As we talk about capital plans, this actually does a capital plan for you,” he added. “All the info you take in tells you, ‘We need to look at this road next,’ ‘We need to look at this culvert,’ but as (Downs) and I were talking, you have to put a ton of information in.”

It could take up to eight months to input an inventory of Canaan/Falls Villages’ roadway resources and conditions, Barger noted, which Vialytics would do. The town currently maintains 30 miles of roadways. 

Northwest Hills Council of Governments (NHCOG) suggested contracting with Vialytics. NHCOG Transportation and Planning Director Erik Shortell told Barger the software cost would likely decrease as more NHCOG municipalities sign up. “If we have all the towns, all 21 towns in the NHCOG, we will have somewhere around 1,000 miles of road, which makes the program more affordable,” Barger noted.

NHCOG encourages member municipalities to sign up by subsidizing program costs in increments of three-year contracts. For the first year, Barger said, NHCOG would pay 50% of program costs. The next two, the coalition would still offer subsidies, just at lower rates, according to Barger. “We would have to see if we want to sign up again within three years,” he added.

Also at the meeting, the selectmen discussed a potential 11% estimated increase in Eversource’s electrical rates, outlined in a letter available for public view at the Canaan/Falls Village town hall. The energy delivery company plans to file a rate case in July with the Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA).

The letter states the increase would translate into about $25 more per month. If approved by PURA, the new rates would take effect in July 2027. The company has cited inflation and revenue needed to keep the electrical grid in good shape as reasons for the hike.