Straw vendors have taken over the Prince George Wharf and will not move until the new straw market is done, despite being asked by police to leave, according to Straw Vendors Advancement Association president Celestine Eneas.
Eneas said. “There are 600 vendors and some of them choose to stay home because there is no place for them to be.
“The police talking about we have out here looking like little Haiti. What they want it to look like?”
President of the Straw Business Persons Society Rev. Esther Thompson said one of their biggest problems at the moment is persons from a program sponsored by the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) attempting to move into their booths/tents on the wharf.
Eneas said the Ministry of Public Works deemed the straw vendors’ tattered tent unsafe for occupancy, after they cleaned out the hurricane debris in hopes of moving back in.
It was hoped that they would be moved in [to the new straw market building] before the end of the month, but Eneas said it could still be another six weeks to two months before they can occupy the building.
She revealed that the vendors recently met with the government to discuss the rules of the new market. She and Thompson agreed that the stalls in the new market are small, but they adore the new structure.
Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham told The Nassau Guardian recently that when the vendors move into the new market, their temporary tent site will be dismantled and replaced with a green space.
