Columbus to allow expanded outdoor restaurant dining

Following months of pleas from the struggling restaurant industry, the city of Columbus is implementing a pilot program to allow restaurants to expand outdoor seating.

The temporary program, to end Oct. 31, will allow restaurants to expand seating on sidewalks and on-street parking spaces where street speed limits are 30 mph or less. Business owners must place edge barriers to separate customers from traffic.

The program will also allow restaurateurs to expand seating to adjacent parking lots.

“The Temporary Outdoor Seating Pilot Program will allow for more patrons, while still maintaining the social distance required to decrease the spread of COVID-19,” Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said in a prepared statement.

Restaurants have suffered during the coronavirus pandemic, with some in Ohio reporting business down up to 70%, according to the Ohio Restaurant

Association, with social distancing restrictions and many customers wary of returning.

Rob Hoersdig, the director of operations for CLB Restaurants, which owns Matt the Miller’s Tavern in the Polaris area of Columbus and Dublin, and Tucci’s in Dublin, said he thinks the program will be a significant help to restaurants as long as it works as advertised.

“It’s awfully late in the season for them to come around to this, but it’s better than nothing,” Hoersdig said.

He said the company has already expanded its outdoor seating at its locations in Dublin, which has already signed off on expanded seating. He said the company completed its patio extension that has been sitting empty for seven weeks at its Gemini Place location.

John Barker, president and CEO of the Ohio Restaurant Association, said five or six extra tables can mean a lot financially. He said many restaurants are operating at 50% to 75% capacity now with social distancing restrictions.

Because of the pandemic, Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine limited restaurants and bars to carryout and delivery services beginning on March 15. He gave the goahead to begin serving people on outdoor areas on May 15, and indoors on May 21.

Robin Davis, Ginther’s spokeswoman, said Columbus Public Health has signed off on the program.

“We know more about the virus than we did six months ago, certainly more than three months ago. Social distancing and mask wearing has helped,” she said.

Also, Dewine ending alcohol sales at 10 p.m. has helped too, she said.

“We recognize restaurants have been one of the hardest-hit sectors,” she said.

She said the city didn’t want to close streets to expand dining because it didn’t want to encourage crowds.

Expanded dining cannot allow more diners than the maximum capacity for each location.

Applications for expanding into the right of way or sidewalks can be submitted at https://portal.columbus.gov/permits/. mferench@dispatch.com @Markferenchik

AKRON — Robert E. Mercer, a former chairman and CEO of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., died Friday at the age of 96.

Mercer, whose career at Goodyear spanned 42 years, died of natural causes, according to his son, Robert G. Mercer.

He is known for defending the Akron-based tire maker from an attempted takeover in 1986 by European financier Sir James Goldsmith, who quickly acquired Goodyear stock in an effort to drive up the share price and sell off its pieces in what is known as a “corporate raid.”

After Mercer prevailed in keeping Goodyear intact and in Akron, he oversaw corporate restructuring and became an outspoken critic of “Wall Street culture,” which he saw as placing short-term shareholder gains over the long-term viability of the corporation.

“Goodyear had 46,000 shareholders, 132,000 employees and several million customers,” Mercer told The Plain Dealer of Cleveland in 2011, 25 years after the attempted raid. “They were telling us we had to put our shareholders first. I believed we owed it to our employees and customers to put them first.”

Mercer was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He won a baseball scholarship to Ohio University, but left after one semester when the U.S. entered World War II and he and his twin brother, Richard, went into the Navy. He attended officer candidate school at Yale University and received an officer’s commission, and served on the USS Cleveland. He graduated from Yale in 1946 with a degree in mechanical engineering.

He is survived by his wife, Mary (Deuel). They wed in 1947, the same year Mercer joined Goodyear as a salesman, selling conveyor belt and industrial hose parts in the company’s Duluth, Minnesota, region. He was promoted throughout the years, becoming company president in 1978, chief operating officer in 1980, and served as chairman and CEO from 1983 to 1989.

Mercer is also survived by his five children: Kathleen Bond of Shaker Heights; Robert G., of Santa Monica, California; Maryann John, of Richmond, Virginia; Donald, of Wichita, Kansas, and John, of Akron. He is survived by 10 grandchildren and four great grandchildren.