CLEVELAND — The West Side Market was closed to customers Wednesday after issues arose during scheduled electrical upgrades. Senior strategist for the West Side Market under Mayor Justin Bibb, Jessica Trivisonno, said they are anticipating the market will be back up and running on Friday.
The market was also closed on Monday, which was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Scheduled electrical upgrades were planned for Monday and Tuesday. The market is typically closed on Tuesdays.
On Wednesday morning, 3News visited the market, which was quiet except for a few vendors. Trivisonno said crews were working overnight Tuesday into Wednesday to get the market running.
“When they switched over from the generator that was operating the coolers and the elevators that the vendors use, they ran into an issue with one of the transformers,” Trivisonno said. “The market has power, the vast majority of it has power, the lights are on, a lot of the things are operating. But the vendors had moved all of their products downstairs in preparation for this electrical upgrade that was a planned upgrade that they knew about.”
In moving their products downstairs, vendors were faced with a challenge in how to get them back upstairs with the elevators down.
“We’re just working through solutions for getting the elevators back up and running, and talking to the vendors figure out what they want to do next,” Trivisonno said.
The new senior strategist also said in speaking with vendors, the decision was made to close the market on Wednesday.
Don Whitaker is owner of D.W. Whitaker Meats, and is president of the West Side Market Tenants Association. He said vendors feel the impact of the closure.
“Financially it’s going to impact you, you know,” he said. “We had a lot of labor, extra labor on Sunday packing everything up. There’s always going to be impacts when you know you’re going to be closed because you have to back off on product and stuff like that.”
Whitaker said vendors are excited about the prospect of new possibilities with a new administration leading Cleveland, and said, “there’s been a new line of communication” with the city.
“We’ll learn from this because there’s going to be other renovations coming up, they allocated a lot of money,” he said of the hiccups that arose during the electrical upgrade. “The building’s been neglected for quite some time. They’ve got to get it up to code and all that, we’ll have to muscle through it.”
After challenges have faced the market and its vendors for years, Whitaker said vendors are feeling hopeful about the change.
“It’s a little different now,” Whitaker said. “We’re going to give them a chance, see where we go, and go from there.”
Later in the morning on Wednesday, 3News checked back in with Trivosonno at the market. Before noon, she said most of the repairs were done, and they were planning to cut the electric for two hours in the afternoon to complete more work.
“This market is over 100 years old, it’s turning 110 this year, there needs to be upgrades to meet the modern needs of the vendors,” she said. “The upgrade was mostly to ensure that we had standard commercial electrical for the vendors here.”
Trivosonno emphasized the collaboration and conversations she said they had with the vendors in making the decision to close the market.
“The market is a sophisticated place, there’s a lot going on here, but it’s a gem that we are really looking forward to working with - with the building and the vendors to give it it’s due,” she said. “It’s not going to happen overnight, but we are really looking forward to the process of continuing to make improvements and upgrades here.”
Electrical crews will be at the market Thursday and Friday in case any other issues arise, with plans for the market to open again Friday.
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