Laconia Mayor Mark Fraser, Laconia Police Chief William Baker, Laconia Police Commission members Armand Maheux and Philip "Bud" Daigneault, and Belknap County Commissioners Christopher Boothby and Mark Thurston made those observations on Monday during an editorial board meeting at the Fair Street offices of The Citizen.

The consensus of the meeting was that Bike Week should be cut from nine to four days — although Fraser did not take a position on that item — and that there must be a recognized "owner" as well as a revenue-sharing mechanism to cover the costs incurred by the various municipalities and governmental entities it affects.

"The No. 1 issue," Fraser began, "is there is no issue" on the City Council with Bike Week, which this year was held from June 8-16.

Some Bike Week supporters have panned the city, but especially Baker and the media, for blowing "out of proportion" the threat of violence at the event between rival motorcycle clubs. Still others have implied that there were forces at work to eliminate or curtail Bike Week.

Fraser and his fellow editorial board participants agreed that there probably would always be a Bike Week. The mayor stressed that to date, no city councilor has asked that Bike Week be placed on the council’s agenda for discussion.

In recent weeks, however, Fraser said he has heard concerns from people that Bike Week got "too big, too fast." However, he continued, "those responsible for the event," alluding to the Laconia Motorcycle Rally and Race Week Association, "don’t want to be."

Fraser, during a June 26 meeting with Rally & Race’s Board of Directors, was told repeatedly by its president Paul Lessard that his group does not "own" Bike Week but merely collates a variety of information about the event into the official "Rally News" magazine.

Lessard said no partnership with the city was possible on the future of Bike Week unless and until the city acknowledged what he called Rally and Race’s limited role in Bike Week.

"Someone has to step up" and say that they promote Bike Week, said Fraser, and then also be willing to "take the next step" of accepting responsibility for it.

"There’s got to be a partnership here," Fraser said, noting that an increasing number of Laconia residents are becoming "more aware of the inconveniences" posed by Bike Week and are unhappy with them.

The mayor noted that Thurston has said his, and probably numerous other businesses, shut their doors during Bike Week, while the late-night roar of motorcycles causes many people to lose sleep and Bike Week congestion forces still others to devise alternate traffic routes to get around.

Bike Week sponsors, he said, have never recognized that those problems exist.

Without naming names, Baker said "a small number of people" benefit from Bike Week. Those same people also "overstate" the economic benefits of Bike Week to the city, the county and the state, he said, and "turn on" anyone who points out that Bike Week has an unattractive "underbelly" which has not been addressed.

"All anybody is trying to do," said Baker, is to "say ‘yes, there are economic benefits,’" but also to recognize that there are problems that have to be fixed.

There is a "silent majority" in Laconia that needs to be insulated from the "downside" of Bike Week, Baker said, adding that while past and present city administrations have been cooperative in attempting to achieve that goal, there has been no reciprocity from Bike Week organizers.

Baker took a jab at people who criticized him and the city for excessive Bike Week safety measures saying both were "right on the money" given the recent shooting of two prospective Hells Angels members and the alleged assault by club members of a man in The Weirs.

Proponents will find it in their best interests to start working on a "balanced approach" to Bike Week with the city, he said.

Thurston said Belknap County taxpayers annually shell out up to $50,000 for Bike Week associated costs, with much of the money going to overtime in the Sheriff’s Department and the transport of prisoners at the county jail to jails in other parts of the state.

The latter is getting more expensive, he said, and is also very time consuming and overall, "the duration of the event (Bike Week) is outstripping" the county’s being able to deal with it.

"Somebody’s got to own that event, period," said Thurston, and if nobody wants to take on that role, then maybe Bike Week should be shut down.

Speaking as an individual, not for the commission, Thurston suggested that maybe there could be a way of passing on the financial burden of Bike Week to those businesses or groups that benefit most from it.

Thirty years ago, Bike Week was a blip on the Lakes Region June calendar, but has grown tremendously, said Thurston, and maybe not so well as "the needs of the few have terribly, woefully, outweighed the needs of the many."

At nine days long, Bike Week "stretches our resources to the limit," he said, a point that Maheux and Daigneault later also echoed.

"Without a question," said Daigneault, having officers work the entire event "just about crushes those people."

Furthermore, bringing in outside law enforcement agencies to patrol Bike Week is becoming costlier, he pointed out, with the Laconia Police Department this year slightly exceeding its $135,000 allocation for that purpose and for overtime for its own officers.

Fraser later said the city budgeted about $180,000 in 2002 for all Bike Week-related expenses.

"It seems everybody’s making money on this (Bike Week) in The Weirs proper," said Daigneault, yet the city and county are still "coming up short."

The city of Daytona, Fla., which hosts two major biker events, did an audit recently that showed it lost $1.5 million in providing municipal services during them, and forecasts that it may lose up to $3 million in coming years, Daigneault said.

He added that it was his hope that Laconia, and the surrounding communities which directly feel the impact of Bike Week, "never get to that point."

Daigneault called for a "meeting of the minds" to discuss the financial and other implications of Bike Week.

Baker interjected that there are many indirect costs associated with Bike Week also, including in Laconia, the cost of having department heads sit on the Licensing Board and/or Motorcycle Technical Review Committee, and in the city and throughout the county, the costs of having various individuals having to temporarily put aside their regular duties.

The average person may be willing to put up with "some discomfort" during Bike Week, said Boothby, but it’s tough to sell his constituents in Barnstead, for example, that they are getting much benefit from the tax dollars they contribute to operate the county jail for what is ostensibly a Laconia event.

The true cost of Bike Week "has been hidden for years," said Boothby, who noted that his employer, Lakes Region General Hospital, also spends a lot of money on overtime during Bike Week and for performing services for which it is not always repaid.

Asked whether they might feel better about Bike Week and support its continuation as a nine-day event if their agencies broke even, Baker said the real problem is that his officers get burned out and need a chance to rest.

Boothby said he understood the pressures law enforcement agencies are under because on the second Saturday of Bike Week this year he rode along with Belknap County Sheriff Dan Collis and was present when Collis arrested a biker for DWI.

The biker was all over the road, he said, and when he finally pulled over, Collis approached him with trepidation and with his hand on his pistol.

"It really hits you," in such a situation to know the challenges public safety officials face, said Boothby.

There has been "a constant barrage" by Bike Week supporters that Bike Week attendees are mostly a bunch of upper middle class CPAs, business executives and neurosurgeons, said Baker, but the "complexion" of Bike Week changes as the second weekend rolls around.

Should a sobriety checkpoint be set up on Scenic Road, for example, Baker figured that 75 percent of bikers would test over the legal limit, yet the staunch supporters of Bike Week dismiss those and other negative aspects of the event, he said.

While the people who benefit most from Bike Week should be expected to shoulder the burden, so should the state, said Thurston.

State officials have no problems putting up new signage on interstate highways and implementing other measures when NASCAR races are held at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, he said, but seemingly turn a blind eye to Bike Week even though the latter cumulatively draws three times as many visitors.

The "silent majority" has to be included in whatever discussions are held among city, county and state officials and Bike Week proponents, said Baker.

The City Council has made it clear that the "silent majority" has to come forward and speak up, said Fraser, but Baker interjected that some may feel "bullied" by the more vocal Bike Week supporters.

Thurston said he faced metaphorical "daggers" of criticism from some business owners in The Weirs for speaking out against Bike Week but was "amazed at the number of small businesses" who agreed that Bike Week was too long and rather than a boon, was a bane to them.

Fraser said he would like Rally and Race to partner with the city on Bike Week, and take ownership of it, "but I don’t see them stepping up to the plate."

Instead, the group has always tried to keep its relationship with Bike Week "at arm’s length," he said, "because it’s safer for them," should something go wrong.

Realistically, the city will probably assume more ownership of Bike Week over time, said Fraser, which means that it will also acquire "more right to control it."

There now needs to be public debate on Bike Week and the City Council must solicit input from all parties, Fraser said.

Whoever comes to provide input and maybe eventually sits on a steering committee "has to come with an open mind," said Maheux.

"The time for pointing fingers is long past," Daigneault said, and the time is now here to find resolutions to Bike Week problems facing the city, the county and the state.