— deadline for relocation is July 31

ALTHOUGH the barbers and cosmetologists of the Merriman Mall shout a great cry whenever the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) talks of removing them, only 13 out of 35 of them were actually found working there when Mayor Patricia Chase-Green paid a visit recently.

Chase-Green is in possession of a list with 35 practitioners who have been asking the M&CC to consider another petition from them to extend their stay at the facility.

At the Council’s most recent statutory meeting, Chase-Green referred to reports of the Constabulary Department, with help from some councillors, who aid these barbers and cosmetologists to practice their trade on the streets.

The mayor promised to deal with the chief constable and any who may be found guilty of relocating the practitioners to the streets.

The barbers and cosmetologists were given up to this month’s end to find a place to relocate, but they have since asked the M&CC to grant them another extension and although adamant in the past that they should remove because of public health issues, the mayor has now softened her approach.

“They are residents of this city; I will do whatever I can to assist,” Chase-Green had said in response to Councillor Trichria Richards recently, who was against the M&CC entertaining any more petitions from the vendors.

According to Richards, the barbers and cosmetologists are not actively pursuing their relocation, because they have found that they are continuing to be granted extensions.

“If we keep entertaining them, our three years will be up and they will still be there,” said Richards.
The Town Clerk reportedly has a plan in mind to transform the said area in a way that will allow the vendors to remain. But this matter has not yet reached the Council for deliberations.

Earlier this year, the mayor had said the Merriman Mall vendors have been disgracing the Council by their untidiness.

“We will not tolerate it!” Chase-Green had said. The Council agreed, by a recommendation from the Markets’ Public Health Committee, that they should have been gone long ago.

“We tried our utmost best [sic] to ensure that no one is left without sending their child to school, or providing a meal by having them there. But it is not in the best interest of the City, the condition that place is being left in. They have three barbers there who have the place looking good, compared to the female cosmetologists. The men showing the women them up on that place; we can’t tolerate that kind of lawlessness.”

The M&CC have always said that they are not responsible for relocating the vendors, but the vendors continue to look to the municipality for assistance, considering that they have been occupying that spot for years and have been paying fees.