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As a back­hoe, crew, and clean­ing equip­ment rolled in­to the Mara­bel­la Mar­ket yes­ter­day morn­ing to tack­le a se­ries of long­stand­ing prob­lems, San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Par­ris said he was hope­ful that the im­prove­ments would en­cour­age res­i­dents to re­turn to tra­di­tion­al shop­ping for fresh pro­duce.

Ven­dors were asked to stay away dur­ing the day­long sani­ti­sa­tion ex­er­cise, which took place on one of the mar­ket’s slow­er trad­ing days. For months, they had com­plained to the city ad­min­is­tra­tion and coun­cil­lors about poor con­di­tions, in­clud­ing leak­ing tar­pau­lins, par­tial­ly clogged drains, un­kempt wash­rooms, and un­san­i­tary fish and meat sec­tions. An ex­ter­nal en­ti­ty is as­sist­ing with paving the car park.

Par­ris said some of these is­sues will go be­fore the coun­cil to de­cide the best way for­ward. He added that while many res­i­dents now pre­fer su­per­mar­kets, the mar­ket still of­fers fresh­er items at more af­ford­able prices.