Wants meeting with county commissioners

By JOHN KOZIOL

Staff Writer

LACONIA — After hearing a presentation from the consultant who would do a cost/benefit analysis of Bike Week, the City Council decided that it wants to meet with the Belknap County Commission to work out a deal on how to pay for the $30,000 study.

Brian Gottlob, of PolEcon Research, said the study that he had been asked to prepare by the Belknap County Economic Development Council (BCEDC) would be a useful tool in helping shape the discussion on Bike Week, and although it would not have a list of specific "do’s" and "don’ts," the document would nonetheless serve as a guideline to making policy decisions.

The council members, who asked Gottlob a number of questions at Monday’s meeting, were generally receptive to and supportive of what he had to say, including Ward 1 Councilor Paul Bordeau, who nonetheless had one specific objection to the study, namely what he felt was the unfair way in which its cost was apportioned.

Since the council in September first turned down the BCEDC’s request for Laconia to fund $10,000 of the price tag, Bordeau has been adamant that the Bike Week report actually would benefit all the communities of Belknap County and therefore the county government should pay for all of it.

Bordeau later told his colleagues that he would contact the Belknap County Commission to see whether a cost-sharing solution could be found.

Gottlob began his presentation to the council by stressing that the report has to be credible and one that would "stand up to scrutiny."

"I’m an empiricist, not an economist," he said, noting that in his opinion, public policy on Bike Week cannot be set until there is concrete data about the event.

That type of information is also necessary to help shape, through the media, the kind of image of Bike Week that supporters want to portray to the public, said Gottlob.

He told the council that he has some experience in shaping messages and that following recent elections, had helped to change the national media’s image of Granite Staters as backwoods rubes into that of residents in a "high tech, fast-growing state."

In his research, Gottlob said he would look at the totality of Bike Week’s benefits and costs on state, county and local levels. He said he would meet with business owners, state and city police officials and representatives of area non-profit organizations like Lakes Region General Hospital to try to attach a "dollar figure" to what they were earning or losing on Bike Week.

The report would show by group who was benefiting, or not, or who was bearing an undue Bike Week burden, said Gottlob.

Ward 3 Councilor Fred Toll asked whether the report would measure problems such as the increased noise and traffic tie-ups and delays that Bike Week causes.

Gottlob replied that he could mention those items in the report, but would probably be hard-pressed to come up with how much it costs the community, for example, every time a resident can’t drive over to visit a relative during Bike Week as quickly as he or she could in the days before or after the event because roads were congested.

The kind of information that he seemingly wants, Gottlob told Toll, can be successfully attained through a survey, but not like the report that Gottlob would prepare.

Later, Gottlob estimated that it might take him up to three months to complete the report, the majority of that time being spent on interviewing what he called "a real long list" of stakeholders in Bike Week. He said he would try to include in the report a comparison of Bike Week to rallies in Sturgis, S.D., and Daytona Beach, Fla.

Bordeau, saying the council’s primary concern was "the business of Laconia" and that the city was expected to pay for a disproportionately large percentage of the Bike Week study, asked Gottlob how much of his report would be directly related to Laconia.

The study will look at the impact of Bike Week on Laconia, Gottlob answered, but there is no way to get the large picture without also looking at the county and state.

"I don’t think you could do it," said Gottlob, of producing a report just on the effects of Bike Week on Laconia. "You have to have an overall perspective," he said, and then it is up to the party or parties who commission the study to determine how detailed its focus should be.

Asked by Ward 4 Councilor Jim Cowan whether he had ever attended Bike Week, Gottlob, who earlier admitted that the event was a lot more complex than he first anticipated, replied "never."

Cowman then teased Gottlob, telling him that if funds for the Bike Week study don’t get allocated soon, then "you could be in the middle of it."