BUCKSPORT — In what one town councilor described as an impressive show of unity, about 20 downtown merchants signed a petition seeking a friendlier snow removal schedule.

Tony Bridges, owner of Bid’s Bakery, presented the petition at Thursday night’s Town Council meeting. He said business owners hope to see more snow removal outside of business hours, when blocking off Main Street cuts down on customer traffic.

Bridges said he realized budget constraints might limit the amount of overtime the town could pay for off-hour snow removal. He suggested changing crew members’ shifts to allow for more flexible scheduling.

Town Manager Roger Raymond said timing rather than money is the issue. While the town has talked about staggered hours for public works crews, the problem is they now must cover a much longer span of Main Street than they did before the street’s reconstruction.

While it once might have taken three hours to clear Main Street, it took 12 hours after the most recent snowstorm. With such a lengthy shift involved, it is hard to please everyone with the timing of the work, Raymond said. A bakery opening at 5:30 a.m. might prefer nighttime snow removal, but downtown residents and hotel guests might not.

At one time, the town could simply dump collected snow into the Penobscot River. Now, workers must truck it to the treatment plant.

Raymond said he would set up a meeting on the snow removal schedule within the next two weeks with the town’s public works director and Main Street business owners.

When Councilor Joel Wardwell said he was impressed with the number of signatures on the petition, Bridges replied that he could have gotten more signatures with more time.

“When you make doughnuts all night, you don’t have time to talk to anybody.” he said.