Minister of Urban Development Julian Francis says the COVID-19 pandemic is mostly to blame for the delayed opening of the renovated market buildings that will house close to 300 vendors.
Francis says that moving vendors from the outdoors to enclosed spaces would not have been in compliance with the nation’s COVID-19 protocols.
“Because of the protocols, the idea of taking the vendors out of an open-air area, and putting them into enclosed spaces would not have sat well “.
He says as the pandemic winds down, a list is being compiled in order to determine which vendors will be moved into the new market buildings.
“Town board is also fine-tuning a list of vendors—who we will give priority to going into those accommodations. That’s basically why it’s not done. In fact, now that we are down to one or two cases and it looks like we over the worst, it is getting attention now and town board is that information that we are asking for,” Francis said.
