…new rent fixed at $6,800

THE Mayor and City Council (M&CC) will soon be signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with vendors who are to be relocated from the Stabroek Market wharf area.
Deputy Town Clerk Sharon Harry told city councillors on Monday, that her intention is to have the signing done by Wednesday, or by Friday the latest.

Chairman of the Markets and Public Health Committee, Councillor Trichria Richards told the Chronicle on Tuesday, that the vendors will be expected to construct the stalls at their own expense and that they will be paying a rent of $6,800 monthly.

Richards said the rent is the same as that being paid by Bourda Market vendors. While this is a “good deal” for the vendors, she said it will not work out very well for the M&CC because the amounts will not compensate for what the council has to spend to prepare the relocation area.

“If you check $6,800 by the 82 vendors; we’re still going to be at a loss because the City Council is spending $23M to prepare the infrastructure for that place,” Richards said.
It is estimated that one stall will cost some $400,000 to construct. “Rightly $6,800 is a low figure but I don’t agree in raising either; not with what is happening, we have the vendors agree to build their own stalls and we give them a grace period, because it’s not easy to find $400,000 – $500,000 to build and then to pay [rent] so we’re still willing to do it,” Mayor Patricia Chase-Green had said.

Additionally, she said the M&CC will also have to look at drainage works, sanitary facilities and security lighting, among other things.

The vendors will have to adhere to building the stalls to the standard dimension of 8 feet x 10 feet and a maximum height of 13 feet. At this dimension, a total of 82 stalls are expected to fit in the designated relocation site, the area west of Public Buildings, which formerly housed the number 42 bus park.

Chief Engineer Colvern Venture recently provided a graphic demonstration of the dire state of the Stabroek Market Wharf and had called for the immediate removal of the vendors there, but the M&CC continues to face the challenge of getting everyone to remove.
Richards said that while many of the vendors have complied and removed, there are other persons living on the wharf that are sleeping, cooking and doing all manner of things there.
The M&CC has since cordoned off sections of the area so that anyone going there is doing so at their own risk.

Venture had, by means of a PowerPoint presentation, showed councillors pictures of the wharf in an effort to emphasise the gravity of the situation there, following the recent collapse of another section of the wharf.

The photos, some obtained with the aid of a drone, showed rotting beams and flimsy structures that could come down at any time. The photos also attest to the practice of speedboat operators to tie their boats to the said dilapidated wharf while loading them with passengers.