The arrival of summer and the accompanying conditions are underscoring concerns that vendors at the makeshift straw market on Bay Street have about the popular tourist facility.
Nearly five years after the old market was destroyed in a huge blaze, some vendors say they have grown weary by the wait for a new market.
They continue to work from under a tent erected near the site of the old market.
“I was doing straw for almost 50 years, and I think it is now time for them to build our new straw market,” said Janice Stubbs-Ritchie, a veteran straw vendor.
“They were supposed to start building the new market since the beginning of June and it is now [nearly the end] of June and nothing has happed as yet.”
While some vendors realize that a new market will take some time to construct they are calling on the government to address some pressing issues at the current site. Some of them are asking for a new tent and some kind of cooling system to fight the summer heat.
Teresa Johnson, one of those vendors, said tourists constantly complain about the leaky straw market tent and how hot it is under it.
Last year, government officials had ceiling fans installed in the straw market. They had also promised to bring in industrial fans to suck the heat from under the tent out in an effort to make life in the market more comfortable for vendors and their customers.
“I canﾒt even sit in here while it is hot because I think I will get a heat stroke,” Ms. Johnson said.
“The heat forces you outside and then the police tells us we cannot sit outside; we have to stay at our stalls.”
She told The Bahama Journal that with the 2006 Atlantic Hurricane Season here, she worries about what would happen if a major storm comes through given the fragility of the current market.
“Iﾒm very concerned about the hurricane season because I know I would not be able to work,” Ms. Johnson said. “When it rains all the water just pours right onto my stall, damaging everything. To tell you the truth, I donﾒt know what they are going to do if a serious hurricane hits.”
She added, “They want me to pay national insurance. How could I pay national insurance when all of my stuff is getting wet and destroyed and I can not work?”
Earlier in the year, Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt, under whose portfolio the straw market now falls, oversaw a massive cleanup of the market and raised concerns about the state some vendors were keeping the facility in.
Rosita Saunders, a 22-year vendor at the market, said even with the recent cleanup the market is still “filthy”.
She claimed that authorities did not properly address the need for proper restroom facilities and a nagging rodent problem.
“Tourists run out of the market talking about how stink it is in the market,” Mrs. Saunders said. “There are giant rats. They need to do something about that. We have a serious sewerage problem in the market.”
With several delays being faced already, it remains unclear exactly when a new straw market will be built on Bay Street. Officials plan to go to tender at the end of this month, but it is clear that there will be no new straw market on the fifth anniversary of the fire in September.
By: Stephen Gay, The Bahama Journal
