Downtown business owners urge city to 'get rid of the trees'

ROCHESTER - Restaurants looking to return to outdoor dining must have their applications in by March 1, it was announced at the recent Codes and Ordinance Committee meeting.
Also during the meeting Bob Benoit of Mitchell Hill BBQ urged the committee to try to come up with a working group that can sort through any tweaks to the Outdoor Dining Ordinance that will enable the city's al fresco option to continue to flourish.
Benoit and Mark Saxby of Collec-tiques both said they would like to see the trees along North Main Street removed to allow more usable sidewalk space and to see the sidewalks improved.
Benoit said he was in the process of buying a new sign, because the trees were blocking its view.
Saxby said the city should look at the downtown in Littleton, where they have replaced trees with light posts, which feature hanging plants.

It's beautiful," he said.

Both Benoit and Saxby said much of sidewalk in the downtown is in bad shape and needs to be
replaced or fixed.
Codes committee chair Pete Lachapelle agreed that outdoor dining was hugely popular and said it was his hope that the city could work with restaurant owners to implement any tweaks that could make it even more successful.
Outdoor dining is scheduled to begin on April 1.