This week in Greenwich: the last concert at Binney Park, North Street reopens the same day school starts, and a $30,000 dog park goes before the Selectmen

Morning, Greenwich. Friday, August 28 does a lot of work this year. It is the first day of school, and it is also the day the North Street bridge comes out of full closure, which after eleven weeks is either excellent planning or excellent luck. Sunday closes the summer concert season at Binney Park. And on Thursday morning the Board of Selectmen takes up a privately funded dog park in Byram, which is the sort of item that reveals more about a town than the big ones do.

Best for families this week: Science Solvers at the Bruce Museum on Sunday, a drop-in build session for ages 4 and up that is free with admission, and the Sound Beach Community Band at Binney Park on Sunday evening, free, on grass, with an entire Wicked medley in it.

America at 250: A Celebration in Art at Coffee for Good, 48 Maple Avenue, Mondays through Saturdays 7:30 AM to 4 PM, through August 31. The work is by artists of the Maggie Daly Arts Cooperative, a self-directed studio for people with disabilities, and all of it is for sale with proceeds going to the cooperative, to Coffee for Good and to the artists. The semiquincentennial has generated a lot of dutiful programming this year. This is not that. Free, all ages, indoors. Details.

Want to reach Greenwich readers? Reply to this email.

Board of Selectmen meeting on the Byram dog park, Town Hall Meeting Room, 101 Field Point Road, 10:30 AM, with a Zoom option. The proposal fences roughly 11,000 square feet of the former Rosenwald property at Byram Park, 1 Ritch Avenue, as an off-leash area. The estimate is $30,000, raised privately: $10,000 for fencing and gates, $5,000 for stone wall repair, $5,000 for a seasonal water connection, $3,200 for site restoration, $1,800 for a pet waste station, $1,000 for signage and $4,000 held back for contingency. It still needs Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) approval for Municipal Improvement status, site plan and parking. Free to attend, adults, indoors. Details.

Public tree hearing, 22 Sound Shore Drive, Cos Cob. A hearing about specific trees at a specific address, which is a category of civic proceeding Greenwich runs more of than most towns and takes more seriously than most towns. Free, adults, indoors. Details.

First day of school, and North Street reopens. Greenwich Public Schools start Friday. The same morning, the full closure of North Street between Cotswood Road and Macpherson Drive ends, after running since June 8 on a 1909 bridge that was rebuilt in 1950 and found in critical condition after a March 2022 inspection. Expect alternating one-way traffic and flaggers through the rest of the job, which finishes in spring 2027. Police are asking drivers to slow down at arrival and dismissal and asking students to use crosswalks and put the phone away. Details.

Y through the Ages opens at the YMCA of Greenwich, 50 East Putnam Avenue, Fridays 6 to 10 AM from August 28 through December 18. A timeline installation of the Y's history, in the 1916 building that was a gift from Mrs. Nathaniel Witherill, with free coffee from CFCF Coffee and no registration. Part of the town's America 250 programming. Free, all ages, indoors. Details.

The new Central Middle School opened with a ribbon cutting on August 24, at a $112 million appropriation, the biggest capital project in the history of the town. The state is expected to reimburse about $20 million of it. It replaces a 1950s building declared unsafe for occupancy in 2022. First Selectman Fred Camillo, Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones, Building Committee Chair Joe Rossetti, Principal Tom Healy and Board of Education representative Bob Chaney all spoke. The design puts the media center and auditorium at the center, breaks the grades into their own neighborhoods, and cuts interior courtyards for daylight. Boulders dug out of the site were used in the landscaping, which is the detail worth keeping. Source: Greenwich Free Press.

Greenwich Public Schools published its free and reduced-price meal eligibility policy for the school year, and there is a September 16 date on it. Applications are posted on the district website, sent home with every student, and available at any principal's office, and a family can apply at any point in the year. Households already receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Temporary Family Assistance (TFA) benefits should wait: if they have not been notified of their eligibility by September 16, then they apply. Appeals go to Ben Branyan at 290 Greenwich Avenue, 203-625-4728, orally or in writing. Source: Patch.

The Undies Project is stocking school nurses' offices with new underwear, and it piloted the idea at Central Middle School. The Cos Cob nonprofit calls the program Dignity Drawers: a supply kept at school so staff can hand a kid a clean pair immediately and quietly after an accident, rather than making a phone call about it. Executive Director and co-founder Laura Delaflor ran the pilot during the 2025-26 year at New Lebanon School and Central Middle School and is expanding it across Greenwich and nearby towns this year. The back-to-school drive runs August 21 through September 21. New, packaged underwear can go to 521 East Putnam Avenue, Cos Cob. Source: Greenwich Free Press.

Dead in the Water: The Rise and Fall of Ocean Giants, Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive, 2 PM. Part of the Experiences at the Bruce series, tracing how the ocean's largest animals evolved and then did not survive, across deep time. Free with museum admission, registration recommended. All ages, indoors. Details.

Sound Beach Community Band closes the summer at Binney Park, Old Greenwich, 7 PM. This is the last date on the town's posted 2026 concert schedule, which ran from June 17 through the end of August across Binney Park, Roger Sherman Baldwin Park and two ferry concerts out at Island Beach. Music Director Zachary Kampler has built the program as Wicked Good: The Music of Stephen Schwartz, pulling from Godspell, Pippin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Prince of Egypt and Wicked. The band has been a nonprofit since 1955 and takes players from middle school through professional, which is why it sounds like a town rather than an orchestra. Free, all ages, outdoors. For a weather call, phone 203-861-6100 after 4 PM. Details.

Science Solvers: Build a Dinosaur, Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive. A drop-in build session for ages 4 and up and the adults with them, free with general admission, no registration. Free with admission, families welcome, indoors. Details.

Bruce Beginnings: Trilobite Fossil runs Tuesday, September 1, with the junior version, Fossil Finders, on Wednesday, September 2. Details.

The North Street bridge project itself finishes in spring 2027, so the reopening on August 28 lifts the full closure, not the work. Details.

We also cover Norwalk and Stamford. Subscribe at buttondown.com/norwalkpulse and buttondown.com/stamfordpulse.

Cooper

Know someone in Greenwich? Forward this email. They can subscribe free at https://buttondown.com/greenwichpulse.