There will be plenty of drinking this weekend as part of the St. Patrick’s Day festivities. Especially for Sunday’s parade. The BPD says they are ready to handle the crowd.
The parade starts at 2 PM on Delaware Avenue and will head to North Street. Police will be on the lookout for distracted drivers, underage drinking, and open containers.
B District Police Chief Joseph Gramaglia said one of the most common things police have to monitor is crowd control.
“We have our district officers that are going to be out handling patrol aspects,” said Gramaglia. “They are on regular control. Certainly we will be looking for that (illegal behavior). We’ll have two facets. We have our normal district patrols and then we have the parade detail. They are two separate functions that work together.”
Buffalo has been ranked among the top cities to celebrate the holiday from various outlets. Gramaglia said they are making some adjustments from prior years heading in today’s parade.
“We are bike-racking off Chippewa street between Franklin and Delaware. We will not allow pedestrian or vehicular traffic. We are going to keep people off of the street this year and confined to the sidewalks. We feel it will provide for a safer experience,” he said.
This year’s parade is dedicated to John McCormick. He helped build floats for local charities before he was elected to the Executive Committee of the United Irish American Association.
Public Works Commissioner Steven Stepniak said they have been clearing Delaware Avenue of snow for about a week and a half in preparation for the parade.
“There’s been quite a bit of snow this year,” said Stepniak. “We’ve had just shy of 100 inches right now. There was a lot of snow when we started this process a week and a half ago. The crews been going at it regularly. We do it on various hours so we don’t impeded on traffic that much and it’s been successful.”
