Pennsylvania Avenue Road In Town Of Bel Air Closed For Outdoor Dining From May 29

Press release from the Town of Bel Air:

May 30, 2020

Pennsylvania Avenue is closed between N. Main Street and the first entrance to the Pennsylvania Avenue Municipal Parking Lot. This took effect Friday, May 29, 2020, at 5:00 PM to accommodate outdoor dining. The Pennsylvania Avenue parking lot remains open for use. To help local restaurants, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Town of Bel Air worked with local business owners to provide private use of public space for outdoor dining, in compliance with and at the suggestion of Governor Hogan’s executive orders.

On May 27, 2020, Governor Larry Hogan announced that due to successful Stage One reopening across the state and improvements in key data and metrics, the State of Maryland can now safely move forward with the completion of Stage One of the ‘Maryland Strong: Roadmap to Recovery,’ which includes the resumption of outdoor dining and outdoor activities such as youth sports and youth day camps, and the reopening of outdoor pools and drive-in movie theaters.

According to Governor Hogan, Stage One Activities, effective Friday, May 29, at 5:00 pm, include outdoor dining, as follows:

Restaurants as well as social organizations such as American Legions, VFWs, and Elks Clubs will be able to begin safely reopening for outdoor dining following strict public health requirements consistent with the CDC, FDA, and the National Restaurant Association.

Restaurants must:

• Ensure patrons are appropriately distanced with no more than six people seated at a table, with the exception of members of the same household.
• Ensure patrons are seated at least six feet away from each other, except for households seated together.
• Use single-use disposable paper menus or sanitize reusable menus between each seating.
• Sanitize outdoor tables and chairs between each customer seating.
• Train staff in current COVID-19 health and workplace guidelines.
• Begin screening procedures including daily temperature checks of all staff.
• Ensure staff wear masks or face coverings when interacting with other employees or patrons.

To promote safer dining and support the restaurant industry, the governor is encouraging local jurisdictions to expand the footprint of outdoor dining by allowing for the closing of streets and expanding into parking lots and public outdoor spaces.

The Town of Bel Air wishes everyone to stay safe, stay healthy, wash your hands, wear your masks, follow the Governor’s orders and we will all get through this together.

This press release was produced by the Town of Bel Air. The views expressed here are the author’s own.