Ocho Rios Market car park repaired

A total of $10 million has been spent to pave the car park at the Ocho Rios Market as work promised by mayor of St Ann’s Bay has begun.

Work is also progressing on sidewalks along Main Street, with roadwork also on the cards.

“We spent $10 million on the market to rehabilitate the parking lot area. The parking lot was in a disgraceful condition. It took us some time because we had to save up the money to get it done,” Belnavis told The Gleaner.

He said that additional work is to be done on the market.

“It’s not even finished yet because the vision is that we want to have bathrooms there, we want to have the shops renovated. What we’re looking to do is to get some private partnership going with a local company out of Kingston. They would do some additional work on the shops to give them a nice facade.”

The mayor said Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ promise of a new market, valued at $500 million, is still on the cards, and this would involve an extension of both the market and the transportation centre.

He said that the new market would include areas for vendors to stay overnight, a practice now being done by some vendors despite the lack of facilities for this.

Proper sanitary conveniences, a food market, a clothes market, a meat market with proper refrigeration are also to be included.

Work on the sidewalk is being done with support from the Tourism Enhancement Fund.

Work is to begin shortly on repairs to Main Street, leading from the clock at the town centre to Pineapple.