How one small town is embracing tech written by Sheila G. Miller EVERY FOURTH OF JULY, as many as 25,000 people flock to the city of Independence, Oregon — population 9,666 — to celebrate the holiday with a multiday festival. “The town grinds to a halt,” said Shaun Irvine, the city’s economic development director. “Staffing is never quite enough. We needed a way to be more efficient.” This year, it would be different. Working with TeamDev, the city plans to create a virtual situation room to make the festival smarter. Irvine described it as, essentially, a map of the community with real-time updates—traffic incidents, police calls, live video streams, employees’ locations. Garbage can sensors can tell employees when it’s time to empty them. Employees will be able to monitor social media. “We’ll be able to know if someone’s in the park and tweets at a friend that the bathroom is…