City planning for outdoor dining
ELLSWORTH While the year-long pandemic shone a spotlight on sidewalk dining and outdoor meals, in general, creating a traffic-free and green downtown space where people can meet, eat and chill has been discussed by city officials and community groups since well before 2020.
The lower Franklin Street extension off Main Street is the favored spot to close off to traffic to create such a spot. With the historic City Hall looming as its backdrop, the side street served as the venue for Taste of Ellsworth for three years, through 2019.
“We are still in the planning process/phase for the closure of lower Franklin Street,” Economic Development Director Janna Richards said on March 15. “We anticipate it will be closed from Memorial Day until the end of September, but we still need to formalize the plan.”
With a population of over 8,000 residents, according to 2019 Census estimates, Ellsworth is a city that continues to grow. More than 400 people have moved to or been born in the “Gateway to Downeast Maine” since 2010, while in the decade prior to that Ellsworth was the fastest growing city in the state. Yet, with more people comes more development, organizations and businesses and opinions on what city officials should focus on. “What’s inherent in our economic development strategy is quality of place,” Janna Richards said in 2019, six months after taking on the role of Ellsworth’s director of economic development.