–looking to accelerate relocating vendors to facilitate long-overdue repairs

TOWN Clerk Royston King on Monday indicated that vendors plying their trade on the Stabroek Market wharf will be relocated to the area west of the Public Buildings.Their relocation, King said, is necessary to facilitate the long-overdue repair of the wharf. Updating the council on the position with repairs at the wharf, King told councillors at Monday’s statutory meeting that notices have already been served to the owners of the K&VC food outlet currently operating at the designated spot to have their business structure removed so that the vendors can be accommodated.

According to King, the owners have asked for some time to remove, but should be gone by November 13.  Mayor Patricia Chase-Green told the Guyana Chronicle, though, that not all of the vendors will be accommodated at this location. She said other places are still being looked at, and that the municipality has not yet decided where the rest of the vendors will be placed.  “We’re still looking at it, and we still have to meet with the Ministry of Public Infrastructure so they can lay out to us how they will do this work,” the mayor said, adding: “And the engineer is also liaising with them.

”  A source had earlier told the Guyana Chronicle that because City Hall is in such bad shape financially, the only way forward with regard to relocation will be to heavily depend on the government for assistance.    The Mayor had at one point lamented on the Markets Public Health Committee’s lacklustre approach to the relocation of the vendors. “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’d said.

The mayor’s fear at the time was that should no action be taken about relocating the vendors, the money the government has set aside 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,” she said.
“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,” she added.
Approximately $400M is to be spent on rehabilitating the dilapidated Stabroek Market wharf, King had told the Guyana Chronicle some time ago. 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 some years ago, however, 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.