HAVING recently denied that works at the Kitty Market are stalled due to financial constraints plaguing the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), a source yesterday said that the City Treasurer is now focused on paying salaries, with the Kitty Market and other projects being placed in the “backseat.”For several weeks now, the market has been under repairs and according to the source yesterday, there has been “no improvement” thus far.

On Monday, the issue was raised about the Albouystown Health Centre being closed for more than a month. City Engineer Colvern Venture, in his response to the Council, cited the Kitty Market as another example of a project that is stalled.

Councillor Heston Bostwick brought to the council’s attention that already 35 days of work have been exhausted on the clinic, for “simple” repair works. “When is it going to be completed?” he questioned.
Venture said it was difficult for him to offer a specific time as to when works would be completed on the clinic, which happens to be affected by financial woes like the Kitty Market. “I am not able to get materials on time,” Venture noted, while citing finances as one of the causes.

In the meantime, Councillor Malcolm Ferreira told this newspaper that Albouystown residents can access services at the Charlestown Health Centre and the Dorothy Bailey Health Centre on South Road.
Meanwhile, the Kitty Market is being remodelled to include a rates and taxes office as well as a municipal clinic. “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 City Council had hoped to finish works on the market in time for the Golden Jubilee celebrations, but was unable to so do, in view of other necessary works. The upper flat of the market will also accommodate new vendors, Chase-Green stated, and installing a clinic up there will also be looked at.
The 19th century structure suffered massive deterioration over the years, causing vendors operating in the area to lodge numerous complaints with the City Council. The Council, however, had long been citing financial woes as the reason the market continued to remain a “threat to life and limb.”
The Kitty Market was established in 1882, two years after the Bourda Market came into being. Like the Bourda Market, Kitty Market is timber-framed.