St. Paddy’s Street Party Returning With Warsaw BOW’s Approval
St. Paddy’s Street Party Returning With Warsaw BOW’s Approval
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
St. Paddy’s Street Party Returning With Warsaw BOW’s ApprovalSt. Paddy’s Street Party is returning to downtown Warsaw March 17 with more guests and vendors expected.
Jason Brown, owner of The Vic at One Ten Craft Meatery, which is hosting the annual event, approached the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety on Friday with a road closure request.
Mayor Joe Thallemer said Brown basically wanted to close Buffalo Street between Center and Main streets.
“It’s the same thing we’ve done every year,” Brown said. “... We’re giving it on the 17th, which is the Friday of that week.”
He said their event partners will be Winona IT, 1Eighty Digital, First Federal Bank, Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation (KEDCO), Main Street Warsaw, Maple Leaf Farms, One Ten Craft Meatery, OrthoPediatrics, Silveus Insurance, The Lab and WRSW.
“So, over the years, it has gradually expanded. Last year, our attendance was just over 700 guests, which was awesome. So the more guests we get, the more vendors want to be involved,” Brown said.
Providing food will be Ledgeview, Mad Batter Baking, One Ten, Shawnanigans and The Diner. Courthouse Coffee on the Square, Mad Anthony’s Lake City Taphouse, HopLore, One Ten and Ledgeview will be providing beverages.
“So, we have some pretty good community involvement. We’ve spoke to the police department here in town - we’re going to have a police officer on site from 4 o’clock to midnight,” Brown said. “We are looking to start this event a little earlier than we have in years past. This year, we’re looking to start it at noon. The reason we’re looking to do it at noon this year is because it does fall into March Madness.”
After trying to figure out how to get people to come out to the St. Paddy’s event who may be March Madness fans, Brown said they’ve partnered with a company to provide a “huge” mobile television screen so they can show all the March Madness basketball games, starting at noon.
“Our expectation is that the early crowd will be a little bit more of a March Madness crowd, and later in the evening it will become more of a St. Patrick’s Day crowd. It should be a really enjoyable program. We’re really excited to do it,” he said.
This is their sixth year for attempting to have the event, though there were two years that were “more or less inept based on weather.” Of course, with the weather, he said it’s a 50-50 chance of what they’ll get. “We either get 75 degrees or we get 12 degrees.”
In years past, the entire Buffalo Street between Center and Main streets was shut down, with tent exposure being only about two-thirds of that. This year, the tent will be 100%.
Board member George Clemens said he stopped down there last year and it was amazing with a well-behaved crowd.
Brown said this year they’re also going to try to have a few more things for the all-age group. “Some things to preoccupy some of the smaller humans that might attend,” he stated.
Thallemer said he went last year as well and he saw that everything went fine.
“It’s a great event,” he said, adding that no concerns have been brought up the public and the event has been held before. “The only difference really here is that you’ve kind of extended the event time.”
The event starts at noon and goes until 10 p.m. The road closure will start in the morning so the tent and other preparations can be made.
With no concerns, the Board of Works approved the road closure 2-0, with Councilman Jeff Grose absent.
Three other road closures for upcoming events also were presented to the Board of Works Friday.
• Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club requested to close Buffalo Street from Market to Main, Indiana Street from Market to Main and Center Street from Lake to High streets on May 21 for the City of Lakes Car Show. The road closure start time will begin at 7 a.m., with the road reopening at 7 p.m., while the car show is 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Brent Mock, Optimist, said the car show is the same as the club has done in previous years.
“It’s always a great event, a fun event. Lots of folks come downtown,” Thallemer said.
With no objections, the board approved the road closure request.
• For their second annual Community Easter Egg Hunt on the county courthouse lawn, the Warsaw Evangelical Presbyterian Church requested to close Buffalo Street between Main and Center streets and Center Street between Buffalo and Lake streets from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 8.
Paula Bowman told the board they have already cleared it with the county to have the egg hunt all around the courthouse lawn. For the safety of the children and parking, she said they were requesting the road closures, but the intersections would remain open.
With no objections, the board approved the road closures request.
• Kosciusko County Historical Society requested North Indiana Street between Main Street and the alley be closed from 3 to 9 p.m. April 21 for a Vietnam veterans tribute. The event will be from 4 to 9 p.m.
No one from the Historical Society was present to provide further information on the event, but the board approved the road closure.
