– fruit vendors to return in three weeks 

WITH the Kitty Market shaping up and drawing increased attention due to repair works, the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has received in excess of 300 applications although the market can accommodate a mere 90 vendors.  This is according to Assistant City Engineer Rasheed Kellman who took media operatives on a tour of the market on Friday, along with Public Relations Officer Debra Lewis.  The current phase of the project, costing some $25M, is expected to be completed in three weeks’ time and will see the return of the vendors selling fruits and vegetables who have been vending along Alexander Street for some time now.  The current phase sees work being done on the eastern side of the market, completing some 15 stalls that will accommodate the fruit vendors.

The Ministry of Communities has partnered with the City Council to provide the funds needed for completion of the market. Hence, Kellman said phase two of the project will get underway immediately after phase one is completed. This other phase should cost somewhere in the vicinity of $60M.  At the end of phase one, he informed that approximately 70 per cent of the work on the entire market would have been completed.  The upper flat of the market will house a health center, a rates and taxes office, and office space that will be up for rental.  According to Kellman, the intention is to create a supermarket-like arrangement with new designs and modern facilities, and to make it ‘drive-through’ friendly.  The stallholders rent, though, will have to be increased and a final figure will have to be worked out between them and the City Council. The plan is for some services at the market to be offered on a 24-hour basis.  By the time the market is completed, Kellman said about 80 percent of its originality will still be intact. While the ground floor was previously made of wood, the contractor has now made it into concrete.     The upper flat of the market, located on Alexander and Barr Streets and Shell Road, also now boasts an auditorium for community events.

Meanwhile, the Kitty Market has missed countless deadlines for its re-opening with City Hall citing a lack of funds as the reason for such.

A decentralisation of Council’s work is expected when the market comes back on board as it will take into account the needs of communities between Cummings Lodge and Kitty. “People from Cummings Lodge to Kitty don’t have to come all the way to City Hall to pay their rates and taxes. We are aiming to re-introduce the system that was in place many years ago,” Mayor Patricia Chase-Green had told the Chronicle.

The Kitty Market was established in 1882, two years after the Bourda Market had come into being. Like the Bourda Market, Kitty Market is timber-framed.

The 19th century structure had suffered massive deterioration over the years prior to its renovation, causing vendors operating in its environs to lodge numerous complaints with the City Council.