By JOHN KOZIOL

Staff Writer

LACONIA — A recommendation to drastically change how the city sets Bike Week fees drew little comment from the City Council on Monday and was referred to a subcommittee for further study.

The municipal Motorcycle Week Advisory Committee has said that the city’s current system of charging a flat-rate fee for site plan reviews and for vending licenses does not adequately cover the city’s administrative costs, including that of providing police, fire and public works services.

To make the fee structure fair, the MWAC is recommending that the fees should be set on a per-square-foot basis with a fixed minimum fee for everyone who benefits from Bike Week.

The fees would be based on use, such as vending, non-vending/exhibition, and charitable; at present, only vendors pay a fee to the city Licensing Board.

Peter Brunette, who chairs the MWAC, agreed that the proposal is "quite a departure" from how the city currently sets Bike Week fees.

He maintained that the per-square-foot formula would be fairer since small vendors — the term would be changed to "users," he noted — would pay less than they currently do for a vending license and that it would also make it easier for the city to enforce compliance with Bike Week regulations.

Mayor Mark Fraser asked if the MWAC had contacted other communities where major motorcycle rallies are held to determine if they used a per-square-foot fee structure.

The committee was still assembling that data, Brunette replied, adding however, that members were "increasingly finding an apples and oranges problem" in that Bike Week was different from other rallies in some respects which meant that its problems and solutions were also different.

Ward 3 Councilor Fred Toll took exception to the MWAC’s math in estimating that the city will be $52,000 in arrears for Bike Week 2004.

James Joyal, who is a member of the MWAC’s Public Safety and Infrastructure Subcommittee, explained that the figure assumes a city Bike Week budget of $204,000 and no increase in either the $450 fee charged to vendors nor an increase in the number of vendors from last year.

Fraser later referred the MWAC recommendation to the council’s Government Operations and Ordinances Committee.

Brunette said the MWAC expects to have a final report on all of its charges to the City Council by the end of January.

Created by the City Council last year, the MWAC was instructed to look for alternative sources, other than the city, county and state, to pay for the costs of Bike Week and also to look at Bike Week’s impact on the city public relations and infrastructure; whether it would be in the city’s "best interest" to assume responsibility for the event; whether its nine-day duration should be changed; and ways of forging a better relationship with businesses.