MONTEGO BAY, St James — Vendors and consumers alike will soon be enjoying the finished product of the approximately $100-million rehabilitation project at Charles Gordon Market, Montego Bay’s deputy mayor, Councillor Richard Vernon, has said.

Since the start of the project earlier this year, major work has been done to reinforce the columns of the main building that were said to be compromising the integrity of the infrastructure, Vernon told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

“We have put a new concrete structure in place to reinforce them, so the original structure of the market has been properly reinforced and it is in a condition that can now run for probably another 50 years,” said Vernon.

The project, which is being undertaken by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in partnership with the St James Municipal Corporation, is being carried out in three phases. It was first announced by Minister Desmond McKenzie after a meeting with vendors plying their wares in the market last year.

Coming out of that meeting, McKenzie told reporters that the overall state of the facility is to be addressed.

“There are about four areas of repairs that will be undertaken and we will be starting with the main market which will include repairs to the roof, the demolition of the existing stalls, the construction of new stalls, and putting in proper fixtures within the market. Also extensive repairs to the public sanitary facilities within the market,” the minister said then.

According to Vernon, another major concern raised by vendors was the condition of the area referred to as the gun court. However, he quickly told the Sunday Observer that better days are coming, as these issues are being carefully addressed with this project.

“A number of people have been vending on the outside of the market and they are complaining that they don’t use the inside because of some infrastructural issues that have been contributing to them being inconvenienced,” Vernon explained.

“We are addressing those and the project is moving. So far we are finalising the engineering outlay for the market to restructure the gun court area, which is a major section of the market that they use for the outside vending,” he added.

The restructuring of that area will see an improved drainage system along with suitable flooring and roofing, Vernon said, before pointing out that the current arrangement is posing a threat to the viability of the market.

“People get wet whenever it rains now and that creates problems because we do not have proper flooring, so it also gets muddy which is not conducive to shopping or vending,” the deputy mayor told the Sunday Observer.

In addition to that, Vernon said that plans to have the market benefit from a major face is currently in motion. While a major part of this project is focusing on the overall look of the Charles Gordon Market, the security and safety of all users is also a priority, said Vernon.

“We are also restructuring the inside of the main building. We have some old stalls there that…have outlived their useful purpose, so because of that, we are restructuring the area to make it more friendly for shoppers and the vendors,” he said.

The deputy mayor added, “We are also doing some other corrections to that structure including the patching of the roof to abate the leakage, and we are sorting out the lighting within the market so that people can feel comfortable using the space. That is also an added security feature.”

In the meantime, Vernon stated that the budget was “ambitious” for the projected work, however, he is confident that those utilising the market will be proud of the improvements done.

“The budget is approximately $100 million, so we are doing as much as possible. It is not a lot of money for the ambition that we have for the Charles Gordon Market, but we believe that this can bring it to a suitable state that will make our shoppers happy and our vendors properly facilitated,” said Vernon.

The Charles Gordon Market is no stranger to rehabilitation projects, as earlier this year, Vernon told the Sunday Observer that plans were afoot to equip the market with solar panels through a project being partly funded by the Japanese embassy.

The project, which involves the installation of solar panels inside the facility, forms part of the push by the local authority to establish Montego Bay as a sustainable city.

The municipal corporation received a US$100,000 donation from the embassy, but the project was reportedly stalled due to procurement issues.

In providing an update on this proposed solar project, Vernon stated that the project may be paused to complete the current work being done.

“About the solar project, we provided the necessary documentation for that, however, we have not been able to identify the right products for it based on the agreement with the sponsors. This has caused a major delay so much so that we are looking to utilise that funding in other ways and revisit the solarisation of the market…especially now that we are doing the rehabilitation and we have to do some work to the roofing,” the deputy mayor told the Sunday Observer.

He added, “We are going to get the structure of the market in a particular shape and then we will revisit the solarisation of the entire area.”