Repair Work Far Advanced on Brown’s Town Market

Mayor of St. Ann’s Bay, Councillor Sydney Stewart, says infrastructural improvements to the Brown’s Town market, in St. Ann, are at an advanced stage.

The Mayor, who toured the market on March 31 with a team from the St. Ann Municipal Corporation, told JIS News that the refurbishing work is progressing well and he is “fully satisfied” with the pace of the project.

He said the scope of work includes the retrofitting of vending stalls, reroofing and reinforcement of the structure, construction of new sanitary facilities and a charcoal room, and the installation of new plumbing and electrical fixtures.

The project, which commenced in early March, is being executed at a cost of $21 million.

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Hon. Desmond McKenzie allocated $15 million towards improvement works on the facility, following a tour last year. Additional funding is being provided by the Municipal Corporation.

“We are at 85 per cent completion with the arcade section. It is now looking like a beautiful market. We look at the ground provision area, where they are at 50 per cent complete and the vendors have already relocated themselves to that section. They are now preparing to do the second half,” Mayor Stewart informed.

He said the objective is to improve the aesthetics of the market and to lift the standard under which the vendors operate.

“There is a very unsightly situation at the front [of the market] where garbage skips are located. We are going to be relocating those to another section. We will be demolishing one section of the [market] wall, so Solid Waste (workers) will have easy access to cleaning it and we are discussing with them how to ensure that they will be able to do their regular cleaning,” the Mayor explained.

In addition to the repairs, Councillor Stewart said an area will be created to facilitate parking for customers.

He issued a warning to vendors, that once the facility is completed, there will be a zero-tolerance approach to illegal vending.

“When that market is completed, we will be taking all the vendors off the street, because there are stalls in the market that can accommodate those vendors. We have already done the survey, so every single vendor in the front section of the market and along some business places will be relocated by way of instruction,” the Mayor said.

Additionally, he noted that as a means of reducing costs, the Municipal Corporation is also taking steps to reactivate an underground tank at market.