A MEETING has been arranged with vendors of the Stabroek Market, including those around the wharf area, to discuss relocation proposals that the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) said it has already come up with.
Town Clerk Royston King announced last Monday that vendors have been invited to City Hall tomorrow (Thursday) and that the intention is to have them relocated during the first quarter of next year.

Since these are ‘legal’ tenants of the M&CC, King said it is only fair they be allowed to share their views and ideas on the relocation. According to him, areas for relocation have already been identified.
Mayor Patricia Chase-Green had time and again complained about the slothfulness of the Markets and Public Health Committee on moving the relocation process forward, and had even pointed out that it must do more than keep meetings.

“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.
A source recently told the Chronicle that because City Hall is in such a cash-strapped state at the moment, the way forward regarding relocation will depend heavily on assistance from government.

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?”
Meanwhile, approximately $400M is to be spent on rehabilitating the dilapidated Stabroek Market wharf, the town clerk 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.

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.