PORTSMOUTH – Assistant Mayor Jim Splaine wants the city to be an outdoor attraction 12 months a year.
As it did last summer, the City Council voted again to allow downtown restaurants in 2021 to use some public downtown spaces for outdoor dining.
Department of Public Works staff also installed concrete barriers along parking spots to safeguard restaurant customers from traffic.
Splaine said the city’s restaurant owners and downtown merchants learned how to use outdoor space out of necessity because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID restrictions gave a glimpse of outdoor possibilities
“The experience of last year gave us an example of how much fun it can be to be outside,” he said.
PORTSMOUTH – Gov. Chris Sununu said the state’s mask mandate “will be ending very, very, very, very soon.”
“We’re there, we’re really there. I can’t tell you exactly what date it’s going to be but … I think the term we use in New Hampshire is wicked soon, wicked soon,” Sununu said in response to a question during the Chamber Collaborative of Greater Portsmouth Bank of America virtual State of the State event Wednesday morning.
Later in the event, Valerie Rochon, the chief collaborator for the group, asked Sununu “what restrictions are you looking at lifting?” by Memorial Day in terms of coronavirus pandemic rules.