City Hall looking to gov’t for help

THE Finance and Markets Committees of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) will be meeting on Thursday to discuss the relocation of the Stabroek Market vendors, among other pressing issues.
The meeting was fixed on Monday when councillors met for the fortnightly statutory meeting at City Hall. Issues surrounding Le Repentir Cemetery and drainage in Georgetown are also expected to come up.

A source told the Guyana Chronicle on Tuesday that because City Hall is in such a cash-strapped state, the way forward, regarding relocation, will depend heavily on assistance from government.
Just last week, the source said a site visit was paid to the location and a few suggestions are in hand. Earlier this month, Mayor Patricia Chase-Green lamented the “lackadaisical” attitude with which the Markets Public Health Committee is approaching the relocation of the vendors in order to facilitate repairs to the wharf.

“I am not hearing from the [committee] and I hope that we can start consultations with those persons, so that they will be able to give us ideas of where they can be relocated while the wharf is being constructed,” she said.
The mayor feared that should no action be taken in this direction, the money for it could be redirected. “Councillors, if we do not do that, we will not be able to get that wharf done and the money will be relocated and I don’t think under my stewardship I want that money to be relocated when we had been forewarned.
“We have to be very vigilant and very alert and, ensure that that market rehabilitation is not [prolonged] because of the lackadaisical way in which we approach the relocation of vendors,” said Chase-Green.

She offered, too, that the committee will have to do more than hold once-a- month meetings.
In the past, the mayor had also expressed concern for finding adequate money to assist the relocation process.
“If the wharf is going to start construction in the first quarter, we have to move all those people. We have to look; we have to find somewhere with sanitary facilities and running water, which puts a strain on council’s finances. Where do we get the money to find a new site to put people with the limited cash we have?”
Chase-Green had said that she was leaving it up to the Markets Public Health Committee to come up with a solution for the relocation problem.

Meanwhile, approximately $400M is to be spent on rehabilitating the dilapidated Stabroek Market wharf, Town Clerk Royston King had told the Chronicle.
He had noted that the unsightly structure is soon to be torn down and replaced with a mall-like facility, complete with a boardwalk and entertainment area.
“Vendors ought not to worry, as they will be given first preference to return, once the project has been completed. However, due to the modernisation, they will be asked to pay a little more rent,” King had explained at the time.

The portion of the stelling which faces the Demerara River has, for years, been an eyesore for the thousands who use the speedboat service every day.
The collapse of a portion of the roof three Septembers ago did not deter vendors from conducting business there. “The facility is not only an eyesore; it is ruinous and dangerous to the health and lives of persons who use it,” King said.