Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 11
Francisco Kitchen. There’s a narrowing of the roadway back here to accommodate this new condition.
Continuing along, you have the blue here does not represent outdoor dining, what is represents trying to
maintain a consistent outdoor dining experience. Vehicular traffic, you have the traffic to continue through
the roadway here by being confused by having an extra turn lane or additional capacity which may cause
congestion later on down in the intersection. Continuing along, again you would have curbside outdoor
dining, am just going to back it up here a little bit, show that this is High Street. High Street, as of today, you
cannot make a left to go north on Main, you can only go right, going south. This would be outdoor dining
here, curbside here. We provided outdoor dining here, but it may not be used as outdoor dining as the plan
continues to happen. This still will be maintained for vehicular reasons. It may be more like the blue
condition over here where we are just maintaining an outdoor space which you have to do to maintain this
type of floor for vehicular movement and public safety reasons.
On East Pearl Street here, you are going to have the curbside pickup back in through here and then the
outdoor dining right in through here. That would service these restaurants, including Fratello’s. Fratello’s
would have an opportunity to have outdoor dining right in through here; curbside parking would be here,
this would be MT Local’s right here. This is Surf, this is again could be Surf right here as well, curbside
parking. We also have, | believe, Joanne Kitchen and Main Street Gyro in through here. The narrowing of
Main Street for going north does not happen back here at Kinsley, it actually happens closer to St. Patrick’s
and the condition would begin right in through here. So you’d have all this capacity and you would not
interfere with the volume back here.
This plan has been reviewed both internally and externally. It has received public comment. An
informational briefing was given to the Board of Public Works. I’ve had individual conversations with many
of the restaurants and shops on Main Street to make sure we were accommodating their needs. | am
pleased to report it has been well-received by many, many people. So with that being said, Madam
President, | think | very quickly went through this for you and addressed, | believe, the concerns.
President Wilshire
Thank you very much Director Cummings. Alderman Jette, did you have any other questions?
Alderman Jette
No, thank you very much Mr. Cummings for going through that. | do want to say that, you know, this
Ordinance was proposed, or this plan, in the Ordinance to enact it, it was in response to the Governor's
starting to open up the economy and allowing various businesses to reopen. One of them being
restaurants, but the Governor’s Order does not allow indoor dining, only outdoor dining. Most of our
restaurants rely upon indoor dining for their business and don’t have the capacity to accommodate outdoor
dining. So this plan gives them outdoors, an area outdoors where they can serve their patrons. So | think it
is a good idea. A side benefit of this, there has been talk for a number of years about the possibility of
narrowing Main Street on a permanent basis, similar to what Concord did in order to kind of re-design Main
Street in the downtown area, to make Main Street more of a destination and less of a thoroughfare.
So as a side benefit, | think it is a great opportunity for us to experiment with that and see how that works
out. So | appreciate all the work Director Cummings and a lot of other people have done on this and | am
going to support it. Thank you.
President Wilshire
Thank you Alderman Jette. Anyone else?
Alderman Clemons
Yes, Madam President.
