West Bayers take on craft market themselves
(CNS): Volunteers on the West Bay Environment Committee are taking things into their own hands. Among the many projects and initiatives they are involved in to help people in their district and to promote West Bay as a destination in itself, the team is aiming to open a new West Bay Craft Market at the district’s Heritage Field. Committee Chair Creswell Powery said that the site is used for one day a year at the moment but it could provide the perfect location for a regular local crafts, artisans and food market, which the committee hopes to launch on 7 July, Constitution Day, and he is asking people who want to become involved to contact the committee to help turn the plan into a reality.
Several past governments have attempted to set up a craft market in the district, near the public beach and boat dock. But whatever bureaucratic hurdles have existed, that official proposal has never got off the ground.
Speaking at a meeting hosted by West Bay MLA and employment minister Tara Rivers on Monday evening, the chair explained that this is a district level project driven by members of the local community. Powery said it was designed to give opportunities for products made in West Bay to be sold to locals and visitors and provide a place where tourist can be guaranteed to meet and talk with “born Caymanians, which are fast becoming an endangered species”. He said that visitors were coming to Cayman now and never actually meeting a real Caymanian.
Powery said that alongside the craft market project, the committee, which is housed at Rivers’ constituency office in Centennial Towers in West Bay, has been involved in around eleven major weekend clean ups around the district and another new initiative is the launch of a dedicated website for the district.
Category: Local News
It would be nice if there is going to be a craft market in WestBay or any other event that tourists might be interested in that someone with a Trip Advisor account posts the information there or somehow lets us know. I know when I have a trip down I love to find interesting "local" things to see and do.
I love people trying to do something for themselves instead of begging for a hand out.
Help those all we can and dont do anything mean to upset them, these people are delicate.
and at least they are not out doing wrong
that said those people selling crap out of their cars thats how most retailers and restaurant owners start out , thats the way it is, the best operators will be able to move into real property .
and the others will stop on there own because they are out of business.
The George Town Craft Market has a management budget of over $130,000. Surely they can't be spending that much. Hopefully some of that surplus could go towards West Bay and other district cCraft Markets.
I think all Caymanians should be able to participate!
Aren't all Immigration officers "born Caymanians"?
Great, I will be there…..
This is a wonderful project and positive news for West Bay and needs the support of residents, tourists and the government. Glad to see that Minister Rivers is backing it and keep up the good work Mr. Powery and the other Committee members. I think that the restaurants, Fosters, Lighthouse Point and Cobalt Coast should start promotinmore local prducts.
Clearly you've never eaten at Lighthouse Point's restaurant, the Greenhouse. It's meals are planned around fresh local goods. You should try it sometime. Macabuca has been promoting Lionfish dishes all week. Their scothbonnet Caesars are delish. Keep shopping local kids 😉
Really?!?!?!? This is your comment when people want to find a decent way to put food on their tables, after they are turned away from door after door for jobs. Would you rather people find a way to make a living or to have people sell drugs to our kids or come to our homes in the middle of the day or night to rob our homes. Neither of which a person woould have T&B licence for!
The way things are getting I'd consider the tourists fortunate that they visited without meeting a Caymanian! I'm getting to the point that I hate taking the "caymanian" box on a form now! Sad way to be I know, but for such a small country we got some big issues.
MEM .Maybe you hate ticking that box because you know that you are not Caymanian at heart ,but a classic example of "paper Caymanian".i.e you are Caymanian when there is a benefit for you ,but despise us the rest of the time.
Dem Bayers gettin smart since Mac not doling out govt funds to support dem anymore…
yes they will,
just like the road side buisness in G T and those selling out of their cars.
As long as environment is in their name I would ask them to please get their good people of west bay to stop the trashing of barkers by the thoughtless people that are too f'ing lazy to drive to the FREE dump.
Really wish the Bodden Town people would come together and do something like this with the Harry McCoy Sr. Park. Such a pretty place with the two historic homes on either side. Shame it is such a ghost town down there.
If you build it, they won’t come.
One assumes they will display their T&B licences on their stalls of course.
I agree that the persons who are stallholders should have T&B licences but being there is an economic slump in Cayman trhere may be persons uinable to pay their licence fees. If millions of dollars in duty concessions etc can be given to Michael Ryan and Dart, Government should be able to waive licence fees if there is some poor indigenous Caymanian who may be a skilled artisan but unable to pay the fees.
This is directed at: Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 13/05/2014 – 10:25.
There's an old saying which goes: It's not for the lack of a tongue, why cows don't talk!
You probably won't fathom what it means, so i'll explain: We all have a tongue, but some of us, unfortunately, have a dysfunctional brain, and so, more often than not, these people will start talking before their little brain has processed what they are about to say!
"There Is No T&B for Vendors in The Cayman Islands".
What would be really great though, is, if we started requiring T&B license for those persons [mostly expats] who are illegally selling food from the back of their cars! I say this because: There is no hygienic inspection by the DEH of these vehicles or the vendor, and I'm afraid one day someone will be stricken with food poisoning or some other malady more serious, and "they" will have no insurance to cover the victims!