Smith, who represents a number of persons who own land in the area of the Bazaar, said he was contacted by Laing, who said the GBPA wanted an opportunity to persuade his clients and the community that the chosen location for the market — the International Bazaar — was an appropriate one.
"They specifically asked me if I would hold off while they consider other alternatives," he said.
In the meantime, Smith is proposing that the GBPA seriously consider the open lot of land on the corner of Logwood Road and Grenville Drive as an alternative location.
"It's already paved, it's owned by the GBPA and its smack dab in the middle of all the food distributors, all the water distributors, the juice distributors, right where it should be, not in the middle of a touristic location," Smith said.
He questioned whether the GBPA had fully explored all the potentially negative effects of the Bazaar location.
"What provision are they making for sanitary control and maintenance after? ... Have any environmental impact assessments been done? The conch vendors and the fish vendors- is that where they consider the most appropriate location to be?" he asked.
Smith said in his opinion, the decision of the GBPA to build the market at the Bazaar was not well thought out.
"Why are they spending my licensee money, my service charge money, all the other income they're getting to build a farmers and fish market at the Bazaar where nobody goes anyway because it's a commercial collapse... There's no more hotel there, there's no more casino there, you can't create something out of nothing," he said.
The GBPA recently ann-ounced that they would begin busing customers from the downtown area to the Bazaar for a month. Smith said he did not think it right that the money paid to the GBPA by the residents and licensees of the city of Freeport should be used for such a service.
"Why is it that the Port Authority... is spending money busing people from downtown to the bazaar? Someone should really sue the Port Authority about how and on what basis they're using money that they should be using for developmental purposes, for these commercial purposes," he said.
"I don't pay my fees for them to support other businesses, I pay my fees for them to promote business in Freeport so that all of us can get employment and the community can grow," he said.
During a town meeting in November at the Our Lucaya Resort, Smith said his clients were concerned that having a fish market there will mean there may be potential for rodents and an odour, as well as unsanitary conditions.
"Its going to decrease property values, its going to cause traffic problems, its not going to be well maintained and they just don't think that its the right place," he had said.
Smith said he and his clients have written a total of 17 letters to the GBPA but had not received a response.
Read the rest of the article HERE
