–M&CC gives Merriman Mall operators new deadline

THE Mayor and City Council has evidently had the barbers and cosmetologists on Merriman

Mall on a roller coaster, initially relocating them from off the streets to this location, then moving them again, putting them back, and now finally, giving them six months to move.
After Town Clerk Royston King relocated the vendors to Merriman Mall last year, on the basis of empathy, the Markets Public Health Committee made a decision on June 22, 2016 that the practitioners should not remain at the facility.

Notwithstanding that this decision should have been implemented within three months’ time, the Town Clerk allowed the vendors to remain until earlier this month when he and a team went in the dead of the night and dismantled stalls.
After creating an uproar, the vendors were advised to form themselves into a group and formally petition Mayor Patricia Chase-Green to have structures constructed for them so that they can remain there on a permanent basis.

As a result, many of the vendors whose stalls were broken down purchased new tents and installed them over the last weekend. In fact, when the Chronicle visited the location on Monday morning, barbers and cosmetologists were working in full swing.

VOTED AGAINST
On Monday afternoon, however, a majority of city councillors voted that the said practitioners should not be allowed to remain permanently on Merriman Mall.
Councillor Oscar Clarke moved a motion that they should be granted six more months at the facility, and then find somewhere to move on their own. Eighteen councillors, representing the majority, voted in favour of this motion.

Councillor Yvonne Ferguson attempted to persuade the councillors to consider another motion, which she moved, to the effect that the barbers and cosmetologists be allowed to construct their own structures and thus remain on a permanent basis. Only three councillors voted in favour of this motion.

Before the voting, the Mayor had appealed to councillors to be humane about their decision, and to think of the many single-mothers who are out there trying to make a living.
Meanwhile, following the dismantling of their stalls earlier this month, one vendor told this newspaper that she has always been willing to work along with the guidelines of the City Council, which has, essentially, only offered them empty promises.

EMPTY PROMISES
“They take us from off the streets and giving us empty promises; we were maintaining the spots,” she said.
“They could have told us of their dissatisfaction. It is a deception because you just come and meet your stuff on the road.”

One of the barbers said that it was the rain and sun which helped to destroy the tents that were not in use, and that that is what made the surroundings look unkempt. These factors are in addition to the social rejects; the junkies that frequent the facility once vendors would have left for the day.

“These people bring us out of town,” he said. “And, for the Jubilee celebrations, they tell us that we ain’t looking good; to organise ourselves and to take out medicals and so. If they put us temporary, why put pipes? And they promised to build something for us after the Jubilee.
“The mayor never gave us any notice. I appealing to the president to come and look into this situation; it appears as though these people bullying poor people. Is we vote for these people.

“Before they become mayor and town clerk, they come out on the road and give us all assurances that they will help us; and this is what these people turn out to.
“They turn their back on us after we finish voting for them, and they get what they want. These people just studying to make money; nothing they ain’t doing for poor people.”