It all comes down to three buckets of powder, a little bit of art and a little bit of science.

Most days the fountain at Lafayette Square sports clear water arcing around the statue of Lafayette in downtown LaGrange. On a few days throughout the year the color changes - green on St. Patrick’s Day, pink for breast cancer awareness, red for the Heart Association annual walk.

Years ago, colored lights played on the water in the fountain, but they later were replaced by clear lights.

“Ever since I’ve been here, we’ve had people who want us to change the colors of our lights,” said Craig Bunn, landscape and cemeteries superintendent for the city. “We can’t do that anymore, but we decided to try changing the color of the water.”

Bunn did his research to find a way to color the water without staining the granite. Two years ago, he found pond dye, a powder that tints the water but won’t permanently stain the granite.

Since then, he’s experimented with color combinations to find the best-looking water show for downtown.

“We only have three colors - red, blue and yellow. I just mix them until I get the right combination” to get the desired effect, Bunn said.

Sometimes the city chooses to tint the water in honor of a holiday. Other times, organizations request a color to match an event. Requests go through the city manager’s office and Bunn has the last word about whether it can be done.

His first attempt at green for St. Patrick’s Day wasn’t a hit. The green color was too pale to be effective. In March he went all-out mixing his blue and yellow dyes, turning the water a bright, brilliant green.

“That green turned out cool,” he said. “I liked it.”

He also liked the pink for the Paint the Town Pink breast cancer event.

Some colors just don’t work, though. Last year’s orange water on Halloween won’t be repeated this weekend.

“I didn’t like it. It didn’t work,” he said, making a face.

He’s also had requests that he doesn’t even try.

“Someone wanted purple, but you can’t make purple. It would look blue,” he said.

Usually colors stay for a few days, then the water is turned back to clear. Bunn shocks it with chlorine to get rid of the tint. Depending on the colors, the fountain has to be drained and the granite cleaned with a pressure-washer.

It takes about a week before the water can be colored again - which also can cause some problems.

“Last week LaGrange High School requested blue for homecoming on Friday, but LaGrange College wanted red on Saturday for their homecoming,” Bunn said. “We couldn’t do that, so we turned it blue for LaGrange High and then we put the LaGrange College jersey on Lafayette.”

Of course, the colored water doesn’t make everyone happy.

“I’ll get calls from people who don’t like it, then I’ll get calls from people who love it. You can’t make everyone happy,” Bunn said. “But at least it gives people something to talk about.”

Sherri Brown can be reached at sbrown@ lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 240.