By Naomi Marshall

THE vendors of the Wismar Municipal Market in Linden will now have to wait weeks before the termites and rodents infested facility is sprayed.

According vendors, the Wismar Market is heavily infested with mosquitoes, ants, roaches and rats creating not only a health concern for those selling food but also for the others whose goods have been damaged.

After making several reports to the Linden Mayor and Town Council, the vendors were informed more than three months ago that the market would have been sprayed, but to date, this has not happened.

“For the past while Town Council has been promising us to spray the place… it cost me $16,700 in borrowing people barrel for me to pack up my business and for people to help me clean my shop and repack my shop when I get back here,” said Carol Archer as she complained bitterly about the situation.

Archer is among the few vendors who continue to operate in the market despite the present situation.

Vendors told Guyana Chronicles that another meeting was held last week by the Town Council, which promised them that the market will be sprayed during July 28 and July 29, 2017.

Unfortunately, they subsequently received a call indicating that the market will no longer be sprayed during the specified period.

“They said they coming and spray and they asked us to pack up everything, so we pack up everything and is unfair for us right now to pack back up these selves,” pointed out Simone Johnson.

In addition, the vendors told Guyana Chronicle that they are affected by the darkness of the market and the stench from the drains.

“When you look from outside and look in here, in here looks like a ghost town,” remarked one of the stall owners.

Patricia Corbin echoed similar sentiment, contending that due to the current atmosphere, sales within the vicinity have always been extremely low.

“This is not a now issue, is long we complaining about the state of the market and I think is time they do something to improve it,” said Corbin.

When Guyana Chronicles visited the Linden Town Council on Friday, a senior official who requested to remain anonymous said the Council is aware of the many problems affecting vendors at the Wismar Market.

“In business, the most important thing is the location, so the location is the problem,” explained the official.

She further noted that the Council has planned in a meeting to build a park opposite the market so that the environment can be busier.

Other plans made are for the fencing off the market which would be done before Christmas, installation of lights and repairing of the roof.

Turning her attention to the issue of the market being infested by the termites and rodents, the municipal official explained that an entity had offered to help the municipality with the spraying of the market.

On July 26,, 2017, the Council was about to source the chemical to spray the market when the entity contacted them, explaining that it would have to withdraw from the spraying or face sanction.

According to the official, wrong information was being filtered from the one or more vendors of the market to higher authority, resulting in the entity withdrawal from spraying the market.

The Town Council has now decided to do things the professional way and are presently awaiting the third quotation out of three from a company to go ahead with the spraying of the market.
It is expected that this process will be completed by August month-end.