The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

After a near three month closure, vendors and stall owners at Potter’s Cay Dock and Arawak Cay were allowed to reopen for business on Friday.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis made the announcement earlier this month - although no indoor seating is allowed at this point. All restaurants must also follow industry COVID-19 protocols and guidelines.

At Arawak Cay, social distancing markers were seen at one vendor, hand sanitisers were spotted, and some were wearing face masks. Samuel Rolle, manager at Fish Central, admitted to The Tribune the business has lost some money due to the closure.

“We lost a lot of money,” he said. “I have a lot of staff and stuff like that and right now I can’t bring them all back to work right now because of what’s going. I wish I could bring all my staff back to work but I can’t do that right now, so I’ll try my best to rotate it and see what I could do to help out.

“I haven’t let nobody go yet, okay. So everybody still on hold on because you never know what could happen.

“I mean it’s a little rough because right now we can’t sit nobody inside, okay. We only could do curbside or takeouts, or you could sit on benches or upstairs on the balcony.”

Vice-president of the Arawak Cay Business Association and owner of Candie’s Enterprises Lillian Laramore Smith said she was excited to be back and see Bahamians socialising despite social distancing.

However, she noted the grates were closed at first. After the vendors rallied and several calls were made, the gates were opened.

“When the prime minister said we’re open and if the prime minister closed us down and then opened us back up that means the prime minister is meaning open the gates back up,” she said.

She also expressed grievances with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

She said: “The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has a vision for Arawak Cay -that vision is not the vision of the vendors of Arawak Cay. We business owners just like the Chinese and all the other places so we get to make decision.

“We have a lease agreement with the government, we don’t pay rent like Potter’s Cay, so Agriculture and Fisheries is responsible for Potter’s Cay with their collections of funds and maintenance but the only thing they do for Arawak Cay is maintain the bathroom the grounds, the removal of garbage – they’re not in charge of the vendors.”

Meanwhile at the Potter’s Cay Dock, some of the stall owners were unable to open. According to Edward McPhee, of Bangs Fresh Fish and Conch Restaurant and Bar, this was due to renovations and still trying to meet the requirements of the government.

“Potter’s Cay itself has been experiencing difficulties from last year, a couple years in fact,” he said. “We had not recuperated since then and with the hurricane and then now the COVID it was worst. Some of us are really struggling, myself included, we are really struggling to meet the demands that government requires.”

He added: “They request to us have hot running water, grease traps and things like that. Some of us have already done so but some of us our things are right now on order so we have to wait until some of those things come in to be prepared to open.”

Nicola Sands, of the Doc Sands stall, said there is still work to be done at Potter’s Cay Dock but thinks the measures for stall owners will be for the betterment of the customers.

She said: “With this COVID-19, the stuff that we have to put in place for it, I think it would better the dock because a lot of people use to be scared to come to the dock or come by the dock and say the dock too dirty or whatever. I think it would be better now people could come the place will be cleaner, more professional.”

The dock’s regulars returning, such as 29-year-old Philisea, encouraged others to support businesses.

“I took this opportunity to come and patronise a local restaurant and I was craving some grill conch. So it feels really great to some businesses open and getting back to normal and you know it’s a good sign that some persons are still employed here under the dock and they’re making an honest living,” she said.

However, 51-year-old Antoine argued, in hindsight, the conch vendors should have not been closed.

He stated: “The openness, you know what I mean, because it will be social distancing and get a conch - it’s great that they’re open again.”