Staff Writer

LACONIA — After a compromise on how many times they would use the equipment, the city’s Licensing Board on Wednesday granted an outdoor loudspeaker permit to the Hells Angels.

Between April 1 and Sept. 30, the New Hampshire chapter of the Hells Angels will be able to use the loudspeakers at a dozen events at their Fillmore Avenue clubhouse and will notify the Laconia Police Department in writing seven days before each event.

By city ordinance, the speakers can be used until 9 p.m., Sunday through Thursday, and 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

There was no discussion during Wednesday’s noontime meeting at City Hall, however, as to the duration of an "event."

Following the Licensing Board’s 2-1 vote in favor of his client, Attorney P. Scott Bratton, who represented Ed Shaughnessy, the New Hampshire chapter Hells Angels member who sought the permit, said, "Today was an example of Mr. Shaughnessy and the Hells Angels being good neighbors" in their properly going through the municipal approval process and by "being reasonable in agreeing to the 12 events."
 

New Hampshire chapter Hells Angel member Ed Shaughnessy, right, and Attorney P. Scott Bratton shake the hands with Laconia Fire Chief Ken Erickson, left, Police Chief Tom Oetinger, and Licensing Board Chairman Jim Rogato after the board granted the Hells Angels permission to have 12 loudspeaker permits for the summer at the chapter’s clubhouse on Fillmore Avenue in The Weirs. (Citizen Photo/Daryl Carlson)

When asked by reporters after the hearing whether the loudspeakers might be used at World Run 2003, a mid-summer international gathering of Hells Angels that reportedly will be held in Laconia, Bratton replied that he had "had no comment on any specific event."

He said also that he could not comment on reports that the Hells Angels are affiliated with Black Oaks Laconia, LLC, the party that recently bought an almost 10-acre tract on White Oaks Road.

Neither the World Run nor the Hells Angels’ property holdings came up at any time during the Licensing Board hearing which did, however, focus on the possibility that if granted, Shaughnessy’s original request would have allowed the club to use the loudspeakers at more than two dozen events in the six-month period.

If there was a party at the clubhouse every weekend, "you’d be imposing quite heavily on the neighborhood," Laconia Fire Chief Ken Erickson told Bratton and Shaughnessy.

Bratton earlier told the board — made up of Erickson, Police Chief Tom Oetinger and resident Jim Rogato, who is its chairman — the events would be strictly private affairs and could involve some general form of entertainment, such as a band.

The six months the Hells Angels wanted the permit for was "a long period of time," noted Oetinger, who said he was concerned about giving the club "carte blanche" in using the loudspeakers.

"I understand your concern, chief," Bratton told Oetinger, but added that what the Hells Angels sought was nothing more than what was permissible by the city’s regulations.

After Oetinger and Bratton went back and forth several times on whether the Hells Angels being given the loudspeaker permit might create a nuisance or distract from the quality of life for the club’s neighbors on Fillmore Avenue and nearby White Oaks Road, Erickson suggested that a compromise might be in order that would set a maximum on how often the loudspeakers could be used.

Bratton and Shaughnessy then stepped out of the hearing room to talk privately.

Upon returning, Bratton told the Licensing Board that although the Hells Angels felt they had properly come before the body and that any restriction upon them would be "unfair," they nonetheless, "in the spirit of cooperation," would accept setting a limit of 12 events at which the loudspeakers would be used, although "we don’t anticipate that many."

Erickson praised the offer.

"I think that’s a good gesture on your behalf," he told Bratton and Shaughnessy, adding that the Licensing Board does have within its authority the right to deny applications if granting them would cause risk of harm to people or property, cause a nuisance or create an increased demand on city services.

Although saying that there has been "no evidence" that the Hells Angels "have been bad neighbors at all" to the people who live near their clubhouse, Oetinger maintained that the Licensing Board could still reject Shaughnessy’s application under the reasons spelled out in its regulations.

"I think we’ve already been through this last summer," said Bratton in referring to the Licensing Board’s rejecting the Hells Angles’ 11 vending permits for Bike Week 2002 on the grounds of public safety. The New Hampshire Supreme Court ultimately overturned the denials.

"It concerns me to have 12" events, Oetinger reiterated before the vote on Shaughnessy’s application. Erickson and Rogato voted to approve the request, while Oetinger voted against it.

The club will have to return to the Licensing Board if it wants a loudspeaker permit specifically for any events during Bike Week 2003, which takes place from June 7-15.