Many retailers may be reopen inside New Hartford's Sangertown Square, but for patrons wanting to grab a bite to eat at the food court, there's nowhere to sit. One food court tenant is hoping to change that with an online petition.

Earlier this month, WIBX reported that representatives from three of Sangertown's eateries sent a letter to Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, asking for advocacy in their request to have seating inside the food court reopened. Now, one of those eateries has taken the request one step further. Sicilian Delight Pizzeria started a petition on Change.org, asking Governor Cuomo to allow New York malls to reopen their food court seating.

"With no place to sit, many of our usual customers are not patronizing our counters," the pizzeria wrote in the petition. "Those that do end up sitting on the floor, eating while walking, and/or using other surfaces to eat what they bought."

Sicilian Delight pointed out that other food establishments in the mall and in other parts of the Central New York area have been allowed to reopen their seating areas. They wrote that the air quality at mall food courts "is probably safer" because Governor Cuomo required malls to upgrade their HVAC systems before they could reopen, and that mall seating areas could still operate at a 50 percent capacity to account for social distancing.

Nearly 200 people have signed the petition to reopen Sangertown's food court seating area and the few comments support Sicilian Delight's proposal.

"There is no reason not to allow people to sit and eat as restaurants have opened and are doing just fine," Al Zeina of Oriskany wrote. "I didn’t eat when I was in the mall the other day because there was nowhere to eat."

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