Pair to meet with mayor, city manager

By JOHN KOZIOL
Staff Writer

LACONIA — A new development in the ongoing discussion over the future of Bike Week — two local men have indicated that they might like to operate the event — may be the motivation for the Laconia Motorcycle Week Rally & Race Association to become a full-fledged partner with the city.

Bob Scharn said he and Reggie Gaudette, both of Laconia who identified themselves as having backgrounds in the restaurant business, were in the initial stages of examining how they might run the event.

Scharn said he and Gaudette have a lot of questions about the city’s role in Bike Week that they need answered before they come up with a tentative plan, but added they are willing to bond the event and help the city turn a profit on it.

"We can’t say much more" Scharn said Thursday, until after meeting scheduled for this Friday with Mayor Mark Fraser and City Manager Eileen Cabanel.

Fraser on Thursday afternoon said that he and Cabanel are scheduled to meet with Scharn and Gaudette but added that he knew nothing more about the men’s plans for Bike Week.

Fraser, did say, however, that the fact that someone is potentially willing to take on the responsibility for operating Bike Week may have a positive effect on the current relationship between the city, which issues vendor permits and does site plan approvals for the event, and Rally and Race Association which ostensibly promotes Bike Week but which has adamantly maintained that they do not "own" it.

That relationship between the city and Rally and Race has been tested in the wake of Bike Week 2002, the after-effects of which are still being felt.

Fraser met with Rally and Race’s board of directors immediately after Bike Week looking to get the group to work more closely with the city to improve Bike Week.

While he got some support for a better relationship, including the suggestion to reactivate a city committee to work on the event, he was also roundly criticized about the "mass hysteria" that he, the City Council, the media, and above all, former Laconia Police Chief William Baker, created about the potential for violence between rival motorcycle clubs at Bike Week.

Fraser told Rally and Race members that if there are to be successful Bike Weeks in the future, then the city as a partner with them has to be treated with respect.

Rally and Race President Paul Lessard drew a metaphorical line in the sand, however, saying that if Fraser wanted a partnership with the Rally and Race Association, the mayor would first have to recognize that Rally and Race’s role is limited to only collating a variety of information about Bike Week events and putting it into the official Bike Week magazine.

Charlie St. Clair, who is Rally and Race’s executive director, noted that there already is a partnership because the city, in the form of Ward 5 Councilor Rick Judkins, is already represented on the association’s Board of Directors.

In the months following Fraser’s meeting with Rally and Race there have been calls from several quarters, including the Belknap County Commission and residents to rein in some of Bike Week’s perceived excesses such as its being too long, its being costly to the city and county and its giving a "black eye" to Laconia in the court of public opinion.

At the Sept. 23 City Council meeting, members shot down a motion to form a 13-member ad-hoc committee to study Bike Week, but the issue of some type of Bike Week committee is expected to be raised again at the council’s Oct. 15 session.

Fraser on Thursday said there has also been movement on other Bike Week fronts in that Lessard has been talking with Cabanel about aspects of the event.

While not disclosing specifics, Fraser characterized those talks as "generally positive."

"As I said, I want to see a partnership between Rally and Race and I’m hoping, with or without a committee, that that’s going to happen."

If the relationship between the city and Rally and Race improves, Fraser questioned whether "there is a need for a third party to be involved," in alluding to Scharn and Gaudette.

Nonetheless, the mayor said he wants to hear what Scharn and Gaudette have to say because their interest shows that "there is at least somebody who recognizes the costs involved" in regard to Bike Week, "and they’re willing to foot the bill. It should be a good message to Rally and Race."