No fees to vend in Georgetown this Easter

Vendors will not be required to make payments for spots around the city during this year’s Easter holidays as provisions for such process were not formulated by the Georgetown Mayor and City Council.

This was related during a statutory meeting of the council on Monday by Town Clerk, Royston King who disclosed that the matter was not discussed at the level of the Social Development Committee of the council.

According to King, “only if it is taken and the committee approves it or recommends it, only then we will go with it…(but) in any case, it is too late.”

However, Mayor Patricia Chase-Green strongly advocated for fees to be implemented. She noted that there is a cost attached to the cleaning up of the seawall and other areas following the annual Easter celebrations and the city will have to offset that expense.

Alluding to the system put in place during the recent Mashramani celebrations, she said: “I was hoping that Easter we would have been able to have the sale of spots so that we can get some money to do the cleaning.”

In response to the suggestion, the Town Clerk noted that any system to be put in place will only be limited at this point in time and suggested that the council “allow this one to pass but that we put something in place for the next one.”

Over the years, the council has implemented a fee for vending on the seawall and other locations to aid in the clean up after the celebrations.

For the recent Mashramani celebrations, fees ranging from $10,000 to $25,000 were implemented for vending along the mash routes.

The council is still awaiting a report, however, on the monies, it collected from the initiative and the sum which was subsequently expended to clean up the streets.