StJMC CEO says full report needed on Harbour Street Craft Market issues
Published:Friday | August 4, 2023 | 12:07 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The St James Municipal Corporation [StJMC] is rebuffing claims from the Harbour Street Craft Market Association’s leadership that no efforts have been made to carry out repair work at the market’s site in downtown Montego Bay in the parish since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vendors at the craft market, which is leased from the StJMC and houses 254 shops, have raised concerns about the need for repairs to the facility’s infrastructure. They have also called for better representation from their leaders and more opportunities to conduct business so as to meet their financial obligations.
However, Naudia Crosskill, the StJMC’s chief executive officer, told The Gleaner that where the infrastructure issues are concerned, the municipal corporation has already requested that the vendors’ association president, Carol McLennon, document all the issues in need of attention.
“On our last visit, in about June to early July, we had asked the president to give us a comprehensive report on what she says the issues are, not just to come and say ‘this area,’ and then we fix this area and then two weeks or a month later you come and tell us ‘this other area’. We have asked her to give us a comprehensive report on what the issues are so we can see how best we can address them, and I have not yet received that report, so I would need that in order to say how we move forward.
“I would need to get exactly what their issues are so that I can respond as I have not gotten any formal complaint from them. I have visited the site, and they said some things needed to be done,” Crosskill added. “I am saying that repairs have been done from before I came to council, so while I am not disputing that maybe further work needs to be done, what I have asked the president to do is to give me a comprehensive report on what the issues are so we can see how best we can address it.”
Crosskill’s statement runs counter to claims McLennon made about the StJMC’s lack of upkeep towards the Harbour Street Craft Market when The Gleaner previously visited the facility last Thursday.
“The upkeep of the market is under the StJMC, and we have not been getting any upkeep from before COVID-19. No infrastructure has been done, and we have made dialogue with them for them to do it,” McLennon said at the time.
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
Additionally, Crosskill stressed that the vendors themselves must acknowledge their personal responsibility to care for the craft market site.
“The way they take care of the place is another problem, and that is part of what is contributing to the condition of the place. So for example, when they put nails and all kinds of things in the doors and hang weights on them, that helps to damage the area,” said Crosskill. “The vendors also have a responsibility to the place because when you rent a house, you have a responsibility to take care of your space, and you also get a contract that says minor repairs are your responsibility.”
The craft market underwent repair and upgrading work to the tune of $51 million in 2014, with the Government having contracted the Marshall Constructing Company to carry out that project.