At a special Select Board meeting on Thursday afternoon, the members unanimously approved plans by five local restaurants to expand outdoor seating in order to serve more customers while maintaining social distancing.

Applications for “temporary outdoor dining for restaurants with alcohol licenses,” were received from Cornell’s Pub (which plans to add up to 58 outdoor seats), 110 Grill (six new outdoor seats), Start Line Brewing (32 new seats), Bill’s Pizzeria (40 new seats) and Zio’s Quattro (48 new seats).

“I wish you all the very best and that you can return to as close to normal as you can and start becoming a very profitable business moving forward,” Select Board chair Brendan Tedstone said. “It’s been a long three months. Thank you guys for sticking with us and with the governor and with the COVID virus pandemic. We appreciate your tolerance and your adherence to our rules and regulations.”

Town Manager Norman Khumalo said a town inspection committee visited the restaurants Wednesday to evaluate each establishment’s plans. The group included Fire Chief Steve Slaman, building inspector Chuck Kadlik, Health Department director Shaun McAuliffe, public health nurse Kasey Mauro and assistant town manager Elaine Lazarus.

“We reviewed the physical layout of the requirements, we addressed all issues that we normally would walk through when reviewing applications relative to public safety, egress, ingress — as well as, because this was new for us, making sure that the order that was issued by the state and has been adopted locally was being followed in each and every case,” Khumalo told the Select Board. “I am pleased to share with the board that all establishments appear to fulfill the requirements of the town as well as meet the expectations of the establishments, and we’re therefore recommending that the board approve them as presented.”

At its previous meeting on June 2, the Select Board supported the town manager’s proposal for allowing restaurants to use parts of parking lots, driveways and sidewalks to temporarily expand their outdoor seating.