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THS art students painting green stripe this year

By Shawn Linenberger - | Mar 10, 2015

Leprechauns again will be painting the town green, this time in advance of Saturday’s Tonganoxie St. Patrick’s Parade.

But city officials won’t be issuing any citations this year.

Sarah Breuer, one of the organizers for this year’s parade, said Tonganoxie High School art students would be painting a stripe down Fourth Street, along with additional artwork.

The students will be using paint that washes off.

City officials have approved the paint, and police will be on site for safety precautions as the students work on the project.

A stripe had been painted with permanent paint for several years down Fourth Street as tradition, but last year city officials put a stop to the paint job. Officers cited Charlie Conrad for criminal damage to property in the early hours before last year’s St. Patrick’s Parade. The city eventually threw out the misdemeanor, but the events made headlines beyond Tonganoxie.

Breuer said organizers decided to take that publicity and have some fun with it.

Committee member Rachel Kelly designed the Tonganoxie St. Patrick’s Parade T-shirts, which have a leprechaun holding a green paintbrush.

The T-shirts are $10 and available at The Downtown Drugstore, though the festive shirts have been selling fast.

The parade starts at 10 a.m. Saturday at Fourth and Main streets and heads west through downtown. This year’s parade will have cash prizes for winning entries in various categories.

Breuer said the committee hopes to build up the parade with more floats and entries.

This is the 27th annual parade, which the late John McCaffrey initiated.

The lifelong Tonganoxie resident, known for his 40 years of contributions to youth baseball in the area, was instrumental in getting the parade started years ago.