What's on at the St James Parish Council?

THE EDITOR, Sir:

THE ST. JAMES Parish Council is a moribund body that should best be left sleeping. We can ill afford the antics of our Councillors on the few occasions when they rouse themselves from slumber. We do not need the talent of Bill Cosby to produce a circus featuring St. James Councillors who say and do the darnest things.

The latest chapter in the street vending comedy is a case in point. The police and wardens have again been instructed to remove the vendors from the streets. So far so good. But where are we to put them? Did our Deputy Mayor examine the Charles Gordon Market and the Vendors Arcade before parroting the familiar but indefensible line that there is space for everybody?

It is astounding that Mr. Mitchell could have made such a statement during the very week that the St. James Parish Council was forced to admit that it has failed to complete the registration of vendors which started in 1998.

Nobody knows how many vendors are on the streets and, worse yet, nobody knows how many of them already have stalls in the Arcade or the Market. This level of bureaucratic incompetence can only lead to failure.

After only three years of managing the Charles Gordon Market, the St. James Parish Council is already battle-weary and might not be able to hold on much longer. As garbage has been piling up and the market has not been washed for a long time, the public needs to know if the following are true:

(a) The Manager, Mrs. Watson, has resigned in frustration?

(b) That the Bobcat has been out of service for months?

(c) That the Council needs less than $100,000 to repair the Bobcat?

(d) That the Market is now being cleaned by the spouse of an employee of the Council?

(e) That recently employees' wages have some times been paid up to two weeks late?

I advise the Council to come clean and speak the truth even if it is painful.

Every person who goes to the market has already heard these things and the rumours are escalating.

Surely this is a situation that demands the intervention of Mayor Gilchrist. I hope that he will dismount from his high horse and chance to take a sniff of this putrid mess. After all, the market is a part of West Central St. James.

I am, etc.,

REPUBLICAN

Montego Bay

Back to Letters