Refurbished market to be covid19-compliant

THE Scarborough Market will see health and safety facilities implemented as recommended by officials of the THA Division of Health to ensure that covid19 guidelines are met.

Speaking to reporters recently, Secretary of Food Production, Forestry and Fisheries Hayden Spencer said it was promised that the vendors would  return by June, but while all the rehabilitation work had been done, the division was faced with the covid19 challenge.

Spencer said with that in mind, the Division of Health has since visited  and made some recommendations according to the covid19 health response plan.

“We are now to include those as part of the project before re-entering the market.

“So the project manager, EIDCOT, they would have made the walk through with the health department and they would have actually completed the scope of works for the additional works that were requested by the health department and we’re hoping to execute that project by the end of August, so that by at least the middle of September, we can formulate some plan as to the vendors getting back into the Scarborough market,” he said.

“As it relates to some of the initiatives, prior to covid19, we did not have the question of putting in these sinks and so on at the different entrances and so on for wash hand purposes and so on.

"Then we are looking at the whole issue of social distancing approach, so it's really more of a project nature where in some instances we may have to do some spacing within the market and actually putting down the markers for the distancing... Remember ,we also have the concessionary area in the back, so we will have to put in the wash-hand sink for each area before persons go into those areas.”

In December 2019, Spencer  announced that vendors were expected to return to their refurbished, state-of-the-art home in Scarborough in January 2020.

He told reporters during a weekly post-Executive Council media briefing that the Scarborough market remodelling project was completed to the tune of $37.3 million, but the division had decided to delay the handover and subsequent relocation of vendors to avoid the hassle of relocation during the busy festive season.

The new market includes an administrative building to house the workers, serving as a hub for processing all applications for the use of the market and paying fees, as well as obtaining general information about the facilities.

In Ju­ly 2018, at the sim­ple cer­e­mo­ny to sign the re­mod­el­ling con­tract, then CEO of Eco-In­dus­tri­al De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny of To­ba­go (E-ID­COT) Ltd, Lois Leslie, said the bud­get for the project was $28 mil­lion and it was expected to be completed within 18 months.

Al­pha En­gi­neer­ing, she said was se­lect­ed as the con­trac­tor from among four bid­ders. Bids for the project were in­vit­ed in June 2016.