Mayor blames short-sightedness for obstruction of Charles Gordon Market rehab
Published:Saturday | February 18, 2023 | 12:38 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
LEEROY WILLIAMS, chairman of the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC), is claiming that short-sightedness between the commercial services and road and works department of the corporation caused the obstruction it is experiencing with vendors refusing to vacate a section of the Charles Gordon Market, where a multimillion-dollar rehabilitation project is now taking place.
“There are some in-house matters that need to be settled, for example, we need to engage the vendors so that they know what we are doing,” Williams said, in response to questions from The Gleaner during the tour of the market on Wednesday.
He said that the process of engaging the vendors is now taking place. However, when pressed on where vendors will be accommodated to facilitate the rehabilitation, taking into account that they are no longer allowed to sell on the streets, Williams admitted that there was some level of short-sightedness on the part of the Municipal Corporation.
“I think it could be short-sightedness on the part of the officers, but it will be sorted out,” said Williams
Earlier, Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government and rural development, under whose portfolio municipal markets fall, revealed that vendors are preventing the smooth process of the multimillion-dollar rehabilitation project now taking place at the Charles Gordon Market.
He argued that while the vendors rightly voiced their desire for the market to be repaired last November, they are now obstructing the rehabilitation process.
“The repairs have started, but we are finding that a lot of them don’t want to leave out of the area while the work is taking place and there is no way that the work can be undertaken with any vendor or persons supporting vending taking place in this market,” McKenzie said during a tour of the facility on Wednesday.
“I want to urge the vendors and persons who are using the market to purchase their goods that this side (closer to the area known as the gun court section) of the market is out of bounds. It is under construction and God forbid if somebody comes inside here and something happens,” he pleaded.
McKenzie and technical officers from his ministry and technical officers from the St James Municipal Corporation toured the market to examine the progress of the rehabilitation work being carried out under Phase 1-A of the more than $100-million dollar rehab project.
While there he told The Gleaner that a combination of urine and cleaning fluids have contributed to wear down more than 35 columns beams that hold up the roof of the largest market building in the parish and the broader region of western Jamaica.
“Almost all have been a combination of human errors where persons have been urinating against the beams. That urination over time, with the various liquids that have been used to wash the market, have contributed significantly to the decay,” he said.
McKenzie said that during the project’s current phase, the demolition of stalls will be carried out and on completion of repairing the columns and stalls, the focus will be shifted to a complete overhauling of the roof.
“Many of the columns are rotten and all of the columns will be replaced or repaired in a manner that will offer longer service and will withstand any challenges that come,” the local government minister assured.
A female vendor who identified herself as ‘Dorothy’ said the rehab work is affecting her and other vendors because there is not enough space in the market to accommodate their goods.
“There are some of us who are still selling close to the area because this is where most of our regular customers can find us,” said Dorothy who is from Manchester, but sells at the Charles Gordon Market in St James.
She added, “I am thinking of staying home or finding another market to sell my goods until it is safe to return.”