By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

STRAW vendors at the International Bazaar are without public restroom facilities after the city water supply was turned off yesterday, The Tribune learned.

Some seven vendors remaining in the Straw Market do not pay rent, but still had access to running water in the public restrooms there.

A concerned person contacted The Tribune out of worry for the vendors, most of whom are elderly women.

The Tribune contacted officials at the Grand Bahama Utility Company concerning the disconnected water supply.

Kim Miller, public relations and communications officer at the Grand Bahama Port Authority Group Ltd, said the water supply will be turned back on.

"A team has been deployed to get the water reactivated," she told The Tribune.

The number of vendors at the Bazaar has declined significantly after a building fire in March displaced an additional 11 vendors with shops there.

When the International Bazaar was booming before 2004, the vendors paid $100 rent. It was later lowered to $50 when business dropped off sharply when the Royal Oasis closed due to hurricane damage.

After many of the stores and shops closed and relocated from the Bazaar, the area became a ghost town but the vendors remained at the Straw Market. They no longer pay rent and the market is unkempt.

In addition to the disconnected water supply, The Tribune also discovered the Grand Bahama Port Authority has served a 30-day notice of demolition on the owner of a burnt-out building that once held shops for straw vendors.

The notice was served on July 23 in accordance with the Freeport (Building Code and Sanitary Code) Bye Laws 1967 to the owners of Lot 7, Block M, Central Area, Freeport, Grand Bahama.

It stated that pursuant to Section 11(3) of the law, if the owners fail within the said 30-day period to comply with the provisions of the notice, the authority may without further notice take such steps as may be necessary to demolish the structure and remove any rubbish or debris resulting therefrom; recover the expenses reasonably incurred by the authority in so doing; cause the relevant person to be prosecuted under the act for default.

Ms Miller said that the GBPA is waiting for the owners to give them guidance on what the next step they would like to take regarding the edifice.