Water Square waits
Published:Thursday | September 16, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer
Water Square, the economic epicentre of the north-coast town of Falmouth, Trelawny, is buzzing with activities on a muggy Friday afternoon.
Bus operators near the western end of the square hustle to get a full load of passengers heading to Montego Bay while route taxi drivers, on the eastern end, seek their slice of the economic pie.
In-between that, stores in this small commercial district are packed with customers hoping to do some last-minute business before the weekend.
An ambitious plan by the Trelawny Parish Council to make Water Square a pedestrian-only zone could bring a halt to all of this economic activity; killing some businesses in the process, or it could lead to an economic boom, depending on who you listen to.
Under the plan, vehicular traffic will be barred from the square and some adjoining streets as the parish council seeks to shift the centre of commerce to the Market Street area, which will undergo major re-development to complement the construction of two First-World piers at the entrance to the town.
Businessman Richard Shirley, who operates a Total gas station in Water Square, is in favour of the pedestrian-only zone, but is worried that the implementation strategy has not been carefully thought out.
He said this could adversely affect his and other businesses, forcing them to cut staff or worst yet go out of business.
"If you are going to make this (square) pedestrianised, then you need to say that you want to grow the town towards Martha Brae, for argument sake, and put in the infrastructure in place for the town to grow to Martha Brae before you kill the businesses in town," Shirley cautioned.
"If you are going to make Market Street the new (centre of ) commerce... then we should put that in place first before we lock it (Market Square) off. So is like you putting the cart before the horse," Shirley asserted.
The concerns were the same at Best Choice Pharmacy, the only one in Water Square.
No study
Manager Oliver Linton cautioned that there is no study to prove how his business will be affected, but said he is concerned that "it could impact us negatively."
Trelawny Chamber of Commerce, through its immediate past president, Dennis Seiveright, quickly distanced itself from those concerns, arguing that the plan will provide opportunity for businesses to triple their earnings.
Seiveright suggested that business owners re-examine their operations to see how they can position their businesses to take advantage of some of these opportunities.
"You can have a business, for example, that is a wholesale and you believe that the wholesale business is not the prudent business for a pedestrianised square. So you convert it, you flip over to a gift shop for tourists and you find that you four times your earnings. That is the kind of mindset we thinking about," Seiveright said.
Undaunted by the concerns, Mayor of Trelawny, Colin Gager, told The Gleaner that the pedestrian-only zone is close to becoming a reality.
Gager said the concerns are coming from persons who have not attended meetings to ventilate the issue.
Those concerns, however, are many. And no one will know whether they are well founded until later this year when the historic Water Square takes on another life of its own.