Expenses seen $12,000-$15,000 more than revenue

By JOHN KOZIOL

Staff Writer

LACONIA — Although the final numbers aren’t in yet, it appears Bike Week 2003 will end up costing city taxpayers money.

The 80th running of Bike Week, which is actually a nine-day rally, wrapped up on Sunday.

For Bike Week 2003, the City Council allocated $187,520 in its 2002-03 budget to cover the costs of providing various municipal services including police, fire and public works.

"At this time, it looks like we’re going to be between $12,000 and $15,000 in the red," said City Manager Eileen Cabanel on Monday.

She added that the city did, however, earn about $174,000 through several Bike Week fees and the rental of space on the municipal boardwalk on Lakeside Avenue.

The single largest source of Bike Week income for the city is vendor license fees which brought in between $135,000 and $140,000 this year, said Cabanel.

The vendor fee is $450, but fees are lower for vendors who have multiple sites at one venue and also for non-profit groups.

The city issued 330 vendor licenses this year, down from 351 in 2002, said Licensing Clerk Kerri Parker.

In addition to the vendor fees, the city this year earned about $18,000 in Bike Week site plan fees, $13,000 for renting space on the boardwalk and $5,000 in towing fees, the latter of which, said Cabanel, is offset by the cost of having to pay to staff the impound lot.

Also, she said, the city received approximately $1,000 in fees collected from Bike Week visitors who paid to take snapshots from the photo tower that is installed on Lakeside Avenue during Bike Week.

That Bike Week not be a net cost to the city is "something that we’re going to try to improve upon and do every year," Cabanel said, "but it’s difficult to find sources to raise money for the city for Bike Week and the city has done a lot over the years to bridge the gap but expenses keep going up and it’s hard to keep up."