Belmar is putting the final touches on one of the largest events of the year, Sunday's annual St. Patrick's Day parade.

Crews hung signs along the parade route Friday morning. Barricades and barrels now line the length of Main Street from the parade’s southern beginning in Lake Como all the way to the finish about a mile north in Belmar. 

"It's a good kick-off to the spring and you could use the business after a quiet winter here," says Don Weston with Belmar Bagel.

When the weather is nice for the parade, the town can expect 100,000 spectators to attend. The parade serves as the unofficial start of spring in Belmar, where hardly any money this winter went to snow removal costs.

"We are very fortunate this year, but we still have to worry about March and the beginning of April and then, of course, November and December,” says Belmar Administrator Ed Kirschenbaum. "So, we've done a little salt, but we've been very, very fortunate but we still have to plan for any weather-related event that could happen in the spring and summer wind shears northeastern storms. Any trees that get knocked down, they come out of the same budget."

Ed says the best way to get to the parade is to take New Jersey Transit. Around 100,000 people are expected to attend, so parking and traffic will certainly be an issue. 

The parade starts around 12:30 p.m. in Lake Como before walking north on Main Street. It usually lasts a couple of hours.