Musgrave market clean-up moving swiftly ahead

Port Antonio, Portland

Port Antonio Mayor Paul Thompson has declared that the clean-up of the razed Musgrave market must be completed in record time and within budget in order to ensure that more than 200 vendors affected by last week’s fire in Portland can resume their livelihoods.

Thompson was overseeing the work as the the massive clean-up exercise got under way on Saturday, following the allocation of $10 million from the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development.

“The energy is good, the people are cooperating. I didn’t know that they would cooperate so good with us, but I’m happy that the energy is good here and everybody is working,” Thompson said.

“Everybody is working because they want to get back the market as quickly as possible. And we are united and once we are united the work must be done, and done in good time. There is a lot of work that has to be done, especially in the interior of the market. But the most important thing is to ensure that the vendors are able to earn from their livelihood and that is our focus,” he added.

When The Gleaner visited the site yesterday, the clean-up appeared to be moving at a rapid pace as work crews had already cleared the entire space once occupied by craft vendors.

Last week, Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government, announced that the $10 million was being allocated to assist with the clean-up of the Musgrave market, which was gutted by fire on May 28, resulting in the loss of dozens of stalls and a large number of assorted goods that were to be sold by the vendors.

In the meantime, Ann-Marie Vaz, member of parliament (MP) for East Portland, was at the market on Saturday, where she indicated that she was quite pleased with the early start of the clean-up activities and that people, despite the huge loss suffered by the vendors, were gaining some level of employment as a result of the exercise.

So far, approximately $50 million has been raised through efforts by Mrs Vaz and her husband, Daryl Vaz, who is the MP for West Portland, through a special fund which was launched to assist with not only restoring the livelihoods of the affected vendors, but also to assist with the construction of a new market facility.