Special summertime activity won't stop in downtown Cape Girardeau with the close of Riverfest.

The weekend following the annual celebration will mark the start of a farmer's market, which will be held every Friday and Saturday starting at about 8 a.m. It is being sponsored by the Downtown Merchants Association.

Scott Shivelbine, association president, said the market will be held around the downtown pavilion at the parking lot at Main and Independence. Coordinator Evelyn Boardman said it is hoped the market will continue until the fall frost hits.

"We'll have probably 15 to 20 vendors down there," she said, "all with home-grown produce." Boardman is the owner of Madder Rose Ltd., 31 N. Main, and is an association member.

She said she looks for the market to draw a lot of vendors, and she hopes customers follow in step. The vendors, she said, will come from Illinois and Missouri.

"We have room for expansion; we've got the potential and space to really have 50 to 75 vendors down there," she said.

There is no charge for vendors to attend the market, which is one reason it is so attractive to them, she said.

Aside from the farmer's market, Shivelbine of Shivelbine's Music Store, 535 Broadway said the association hasn't really planned any summer activities or promotions.

He said the association has plans for the near future to improve more downtown street crossings by installing bricks and park benches. Since last summer, he said, the association has improved the crossings at Broadway and Main and Main and Independence, as well as finishing other projects.

"We planted 22 new trees in the planters; we planted roses along the floodwall," he said. Also, the downtown pavilion was finished, he said.

Boardman said the strategic planning organization, Vision 2000, donated a flagpole for downtown that is already up. The association bought a U.S. flag for the pole and will light it shortly, she said.

"(Vision 2000) just donated a flagpole for the area because they wanted to be part of the restoration and beautification," Shivelbine said. The flagpole is near the pavilion.

Additional ornamental trash cans are being ordered for downtown, said Charles Hutson, a member of the association's Board of Directors. Hutson, of Hutson Furniture Co., 43 S. Main, said the trash cans are being purchased through the cooperation of Vision 2000 and the Cape Girardeau Redevelopment Corporation, of which he serves as president.

The trash cans, made of green-painted metal and wooden slats, are the same as those already downtown, he said.

Hutson said he didn't know the number of trash cans being bought. The cans probably cost less than $500, he said.