Bangor City Council discusses different options for Broad Street closure
BANGOR- On Monday, members of Bangor City Council met to discuss the future of the broad street closure
Back in June, Bangor’s City Manager Catherine Conlow had authorized the closure of Broad Street in downtown Bangor effective until the end of Bangor’s state of emergency or by September 7, whichever comes first.
Now that September 7 is 2 weeks away, city council spent Monday figuring out whether or not they would support reopening Broad st on that date, support different alternatives which includes pushing back the reopening date to September 21 or doing something completely different.
“I talked to engineering about the thought of essentially splitting that road and opening it up to vehicle traffic and allow for dining on the street as well as any other potential options,” Bangor Assistant City Manager Rich Cromwell said.
Cromwell added the third option would allow restaurants to use the entire sidewalk for outdoor seating while still allowing pedestrian traffic to flow next to vehicle traffic, with a barricade separating those on foot from those in cars.
” If you can do that to make it more easily accessible for the back businesses back there like Evenroods and Designs by Aarons and the residential tenants while letting paddy’s have kind of a bumped out space on the side walk and keeping the one for happy endings. I think that’s probably going to get the closest to the best possible outcome for the most parties involved,” said Ben Sprague, a Bangor city council member.
After a short discussion, council members began leaning toward creating a 130 foot long by 6 foot wide pedestrian walkway of the Broad Street while opening up the rest of the street to cars again.
“I generally support the direction we’re going with this and as long as the weather is good, I think we should keep the out door seating on the sidewalks and any kind of park-lets that are permissible still going,” Sprague said.
Nothing is decided until the city manager authorizes the plan.
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