Apr 13, 2011 By Christine Haines 2 min read

?BROWNSVILLE — The Greater Brownsville Area Chamber of Commerce Tuesday heard from Fred Lapisardi of the Market Street Performing Arts Center regarding plans for the Market Street Arts Festival.

The new event will be held in conjunction with the National Road Festival this year. Lapisardi said the arts festival will have activities throughout the town.

“The intention is to draw people off the highway while they’re zooming through town,” Lapisardi said. “Get those people off the road and into the North Side and downtown.”

Lapisardi said the event will include church tours, concerts, strolling musicians, art and photography exhibits and a recreation of the visit of “Swedish Nightingale” Jenny Lind, who visited Brownsville 160 years ago, as well as a children’s play area and other events.

“One of the unique elements of this festival is pedicabs. They look like rickshaws with bicycles,” Lapisardi said.

The pedicabs will be used for tours and shuttles in the downtown and South Brownsville areas, while a mini bus will provide shuttle service between sites on the North Side and the downtown area.

In other matters, the Brownsville chamber is partnering with the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce to host a cruise on the Monongahela River this year.

Brownsville chamber President Frank Ricco said he’s been talking to representatives of the Gateway Clipper Fleet about the July 18 event.

“We’ve negotiated a decent price,” Ricco said. “It should be $65 a person. We want to make this this something we can be proud of.”

Ricco also reported that a nonprofit organization has been formed to raise funds for projects at Patsy Hillman Park. The nonprofit group is meeting this evening at the Hillman pavilion at the park to elect officers. Individuals interested in being on the nonprofit board are welcome to attend the meeting, Ricco said.

Chamber member Bill Johnson reported that the Brownsville Rotary Club has three more students to select for this year’s Student of the Month program before selecting the student of the year. Johnson suggested that the chamber recognize the students in the future. Ricco said the chamber used to have the students of the month speak at the chamber meetings.