By JOHN KOZIOL
Staff Writer
LACONIA — As it did two weeks ago, the City Council
on Monday again will address items related to Bike
Week and the Laconia Human Relations Committee.
The agenda for the meeting lists Bike Week, and
specifically the creation of a municipal committee to
look at the event seems a given. In addition, Ward 4
Councilor James Cowan has asked that the issue of the
Human Relations Committee be re-examined.
At its Sept. 9 session, a divided City Council
decided to retain its official association with the
Laconia Human Relations Committee and also to allow
the committee to use the city logo on its literature.
However, it only briefly touched on the Bike Week
committee at that session.
On Sept. 9, Cowan and Ward 1 Councilor Paul Bordeau
gave Mayor Mark Fraser written suggestions on the
composition of a Bike Week committee and on Thursday,
Fraser said he expected to make some proposals on the
matter to the council on Monday.
The council must first vote to create an ad hoc
committee to look at Bike Week, Fraser pointed out,
before he can appoint any of its members.
But the mayor believes there is support on the
council to form a committee.
What type of committee will look at Bike Week, if
any, is the council’s call, said Fraser. However, he
did say that he would like to see representatives from
the city’s Police and Public Works departments serve
as staff to the committee, though not as voting
members.
Ultimately, the goal would be to form a Bike Week
committee whose members don’t have a vested interest
in Bike Week, said Fraser.
"We don’t want to load it up one way or another,"
he said.
Addressing the Laconia Motorcycle Rally and Race
Week Association, which promotes Bike Week, but has
adamantly refused to take "ownership" of it, Fraser
said the association shouldn’t feel threatened by the
formation of a municipal Bike Week committee.
"I know that there is always suspicion on the part
of Rally and Race that anything we do is to harm them,
but not one councilor has expressed a desire to do
away with this event," said Fraser. However, several
councilors have expressed a desire to improve it.
The current discussions have been prompted by a
controversial Bike Week 2002. Supporters of the event
blasted law enforcement and the media for
over-reacting to threats of violence between
motorcycle clubs, and faulted the State Liquor
Commission for revoking, but then approving beer tent
licenses at the veritable last minute. There has been
talk in several quarters, including among residents,
on the City Council and also among members of the
Belknap County Commission, as to whether Bike Week
grew too fast and whether some of its negative aspects
give the city a "black eye" in the court of public
opinion.
No one wants to eliminate Bike Week, Fraser
stressed, although there have been recommendations to
possibly shorten it from its current nine days.
Overall, Bike Week should be a positive reflection on
the city, said Fraser, and the question before the
council is "how do we make it better."
Following this year’s Bike Week, Fraser met with
Rally and Race officials and talked about a
partnership between it and the city. That offer still
stands, said Fraser, and the association has to
understand that "the city is trying to do what’s best
for the entire city."
"I don’t envision or want to see the event going
away, but we also have to be amenable to opening up
the discussion to those who think it’s not beneficial
to them," Fraser said. There aren’t "major problems"
with Bike Week, but the issue of addressing any
problems has been festering, the mayor said. Thus, the
dialogue, or what there has been of it, has become
seemingly "more emotional," he said.
Not as emotional a topic is the fate of the Human
Relations Committee, which was created by the council
in 2000 to address Laconia’s becoming an increasingly
diverse community.
Cowan last month said the Human Relations Committee
should no longer be under the auspices of the city. In
recommending that the council disassociate itself from
the committee, he maintained that it could appear the
council supported any positions that the committee
took
At the Sept. 9 meeting, Cowan’s motion to sever the
two failed after Fraser broke a 3-3 tie.
Fraser on Thursday said he disagreed with Cowan’s
view that a one-year sunset provision applies to the
Human Relations Committee.
The City Council meets at 7:30 p.m. Monday in Room
200A at City Hall.
