AS the country today hails its national heroes for their monumental feats fighting for freedom and independence, while conferring national honours and awards on Jamaicans for outstanding service, some citizens are furious with the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC).

Vendors who occupied space in Redemption Arcade before it was gutted by fire in June are claiming that the KSAMC is dragging its feet with repairing the market.

When the Jamaica Observer visited the downtown Kingston market last Tuesday, vendors complained bitterly about being unable to provide for their families — a heroic act for some — due to the delay in getting the market up and running again.

“A three man alone over there seh dem a work from June until now. Look, see the burn-up stalls dem still in there. If dem did a do something dem (KSAMC) would a take them out already,” vendor Sharon Davis charged.

“Three men can fix arcade?” she quizzed.

She voiced her concerns as a man, who appeared to be a security guard, stood at the gate to the market with a baton in hand.

Behind him was a pile of charred metals — a clear indication that the vendors will have to wait a while longer before returning inside the market.

Davis was among a group of vendors on a sidewalk, several of them retrieving items from a container close to the entrance to the premises while others were busy trying to affix hangers with outfits made from the Jamaican bandana fabric to barbed wire and makeshift stalls that crowded the sidewalk.

Davis, who is 50 years old, said despite several attempts to generate an income, her efforts are not bearing fruit.

“Nobody not going to employ me again. Whatever mi used to make in the arcade, is it mi eat out of and send mi children to school. Right now, I am on mi face,” the mother of five said.

Pointing out that she has no choice but to sell on the road, Davis said that she normally paid $2,000 per week for rent inside the market.

“When the rain fall, everything wet up. A bare rain fall every day, we cannot sell anything,” she told the Observer. “Every day rain wet my goods. If you owe three weeks, them lock you stall. A nuff time mi in there and no sell a thing and mi affi guh look the money to pay the fee,” Davis said, adding that she did not want to sell on the street.

The frustrated woman suggested that if the market’s roof was installed, at least she would have a place to ply her trade.

Loretta Clarke echoed similar sentiments.

“Mi a 65 year old. Who a go employ mi at this age? Mi a nuh young gyal. Mi throw mi belly in there (the market), a it mi eat and drink out of,” Clarke lamented.

Meanwhile, Marvalee Cousins, 62, who sold inside the market with her 69-year-old husband, said her hopes of returning to the Redemption Arcade are fading.

“As you can see, a here suh mi deh a try sell little peanut. My husband affi start walk and sell some socks, books and suh, in a one little box,” Cousins said as she sat under a board stall on the sidewalk.

On Friday, the KSAMC countered the vendors’ accusations, telling the Observer that the market is being redeveloped as well as improved.

“There are several serious issues that the council is addressing to ensure that perennial problems do not occur. These include, but are not limited to security, electrical, sanitation, and building standards being adhered to,” the KSAMC said.

On June 12, firefighters from York Park and Trench Town fire stations responded to a call at 10:25 pm that the market was on fire. Soon after, their colleagues at Stony Hill, Spanish Town and Rollington Town fire stations had to be called to the location when the team realised that the entire market was engulfed in flames.

After three hours, the firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control. However, it was too late.

Approximately 200 stalls had been destroyed.

Last Tuesday, the vendors appealed to the KSAMC to repair the market more quickly.