By JOHN KOZIOL
Staff Writer

LACONIA — The second time was the charm as the City Council, which had turned down a similar proposal last month, voted 5-1 on Tuesday to form a Bike Week advisory committee.

Ward 5 Councilor Rick Judkins cast the sole negative vote, but even he said he supported the larger idea of a Bike Week committee. He added, however, that he thought the timing was a bit premature.

After its approval, the matter of the Bike Week body was referred to the council’s Government Operation and Ordinances Committee for further review.

Mayor Mark Fraser instructed committee chairman, Ward 2 Councilor Bob Luther, to come back to the full council with suggestions on how the Bike Week committee should be structured and what its goals should be.

Luther later said he expected his committee to discuss the details of the Bike Week committee on Oct. 30.

The idea for a Bike Week committee was introduced on Tuesday by Ward 6 Councilor Armand Bolduc, who said he and "an awful lot of people in the community" would like to see it formed.

Bolduc was set to have the council vote on two separate questions — forming the committee and then having seven members on it — but Fraser counseled him against pursuing the latter because "I think we could be here all night" trying to figure out who those seven committee members should be.

At its Sept. 23 meeting, the council rejected Ward 1 Councilor Paul Bordeau’s motion, which mirrored Fraser’s suggestion, to have a 13-member Bike Week committee.

Several of the councilors, who were opposed to that motion, raised concerns about the committee not being objective enough and were in favor of one made up only of citizens who did not have preconceived notions about Bike Week.

The council on Tuesday, after voting against it on Sept. 9, also seemingly warmed up to the idea of ponying up city funds some time soon to have a consultant do a comprehensive study of Bike Week.

Judkins, in fact, said he was voting not to form the Bike Week committee now because he wanted its members to have the study data first.

Fraser told the council that in recently meeting with the consultant, he was very impressed by what the study could offer the city.

The study, which would be a cost/benefit analysis of Bike Week, was proposed by the Belknap County Economic Development Council which had asked the city to fund $10,000 of its estimated $30,000-$35,000 cost.

On Sept. 9, the funding request was defeated by a 4-3 vote, with Fraser casting the deciding ballot, but on Tuesday, the mayor spoke enthusiastically about the Bike Week study.

The study, he said, would look at not only the question of how much money the event brought in and what its costs were, but also the long-term issues, such as whether publicity-wise, Bike Week was a positive or negative for the city.

Additionally, the study would examine the effect of Bike Week on tourism in The Weirs and also look at what the city and individual property owners there could do to improve infrastructure and facilities, said Fraser.

The consultant has interviewed several members of the Belknap County Economic Development Council already, Fraser continued, and found that while most had concerns about some aspects of Bike Week — nearly all of which could be addressed, he added — the consensus among them was not to "throw out the baby with the bath water."

In other Bike Week news, Fraser told the council that City Manager Eileen Cabanel is continuing to meet with representatives of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Rally and Race Association to discuss how the city can guarantee revenues from the event.

Responding to suggestions that the Bike Week committee be formed after the cost/benefit analysis is done, Bordeau said he wants them "working in parallel."

He reiterated his position from the council’s Sept. 9 vote on the study funding, that its entire cost should be picked up by the Belknap County Commission because all the communities of the county stand to benefit from the information it will gather.