ST ANN, Jamaica — Vendors at the St Ann’s Bay Market in St Ann, will soon have their issues at the facility addressed following the announcement of $15 million towards renovation by Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie.

Minister McKenzie made the announcement while on a tour of the market on Tuesday.

According to the minister, he is disappointed at the state of the facility and he understands the concern of the vendors and customers alike.

“Last week I was passing the market and a number of vendors spoke to me about the problem that they are experiencing. I gave a commitment to the vendors that I would come back today (Tuesday) to have an extensive tour and to look at the problems and to hear from them. I must tell you I am a bit disappointed about the state of the market and I do share their concern about the challenges it poses to their livelihood,” he said.

“We have been a working government, I did provide last year an amount of money to undertake repairs to the toilet facilities in the market, those works are ongoing as a I speak, but there needs to be much more that needs to be done to address the issues not only that were raised by the vendors but by persons who are shopping”, he added.

He said the works will focus on the sidewalk, painting and the bathroom facility.

However, he admitted that the works will not be completed at once.

“So the ministry is going to be providing $15 million which will immediately descend on the municipal corporation specifically to deal with the issues surrounding the St Ann’s Bay market. There needs to be urgent repairs to the sidewalk, there needs to be some cleaning up of the facility, putting on a quote of paint to lift the facility. They will not be able to do the work all at once, but this is an incremental amount that will be given until we look at how best to deal with the lasting issues,” he said.

He called on vendors to cooperate as the project takes place.

“I am concerned. When I went upstairs, how the stalls in there are situated poses not just a danger to vendors but also to persons using the market.I’m hoping that the vendors will cooperate. I know they have real concern but Rome was not built in a day”, he said. He noted that the move is alongside several other renovation works that are being done in the parish, to include works on the Brown’s Town and the Ocho Rios markets.

“As I said we started last year in providing some funds to repair the bathroom, we have provided funds for the Brown’s Town, we have provided funds on the Ocho Rios Market and I understand the work on the Ocho Rios market is completed and ready to go and then now this one is in an advanced phase of repair, because they are putting a complete new toilet block for male and female,” he noted.