By JOHN KOZIOL

Staff Writer

LACONIA — During the past decade Motorcycle Week has evolved from unorganized weekend happening around Weirs Beach to a nine-day affair, filled with special events, which is not only a boon to the Lakes Region, but the state at-large.

That is the message which the leaders of the Laconia Motorcycle Rally and Race Week Association and a newly formed group called Friends of Motorcycle Week are putting out as they gear up for the 80th running of Bike Week set for June 7-15.

During a meeting with The Citizen Editorial Board Tuesday, Paul Lessard, Rally and Race Week Association President, said the event has a widespread economic impact. Some businesses have a direct benefit from the rally while for others the benefit is more indirect.

According to testimonials that were provided by Lessard and public relations consultant Rick Fink, among the direct beneficiaries are the Portsmouth Paper Co., which said Bike Week was second only to Independence Day as far as its annual sales and deliveries were concerned, and from the Mount Washington Auto Road in Gorham and the Gunstock Recreation Area in Gilford, each of whom reported that Bike Week visitors gave their bottom lines huge boosts.

Meanwhile, George Francis, who is general manager of Trustworthy Hardware in Laconia and Sally McGarry, who is general manager of Boulia-Gorrell Lumber, also of Laconia, said they supported Bike Week because money from the rally "trickles down" to their businesses.

Each of the testimonials is from a "2003 Rally Patron" who has made a financial contribution to Rally and Race, according to the Laconia Rally News, the group’s official publication. Additionally, Gunstock is also represented on Rally and Race’s board of directors.

Though working to find a "substantial benefit" for the city and its taxpayers, Lessard said the Rally and Race Week Association is limited in how much it can help those impacted by the annual rally find ways of realizing financial and other types of relief.

Asked whether Rally and Race should be involved in addressing some of the "down sides" of Bike Week — some area residents and officials have said that Bike Week is too long, too loud and disruptive, as well as being a drain on local and county services — Lessard replied that he and Laconia City Manager Eileen Cabanel and Mayor Mark Fraser have met several times since Bike Week 2002 "in an effort to look at what can be done" to provide "a substantial (financial) benefit" to Laconia from Bike Week.

While there was "nothing as yet" on how the city might make more money on Bike Week, the two sides were nonetheless working to find ways of doing so, said Lessard, who said several ideas, which he did not elaborate upon, were looked at but dismissed as being "cost prohibitive."

Any local business that isn’t getting its "fair share" should ask itself how it could better invest in Bike Week, said Lessard, adding: "If you want to make money during Motorcycle Week, there are ways to do it."

Recognizing that Bike Week is a statewide event, Lessard was asked whether it was time to get the state government to pay a greater share of costs associated with the event.

Lessard replied that those communities unhappy with the way the expenses are currently being borne should contact their local lawmakers rather than having Rally and Race lobby on their behalf in Concord.

As an association, "what power do we have?" he said, although it was pointed out to Lessard that various constituencies regularly petition the state government.

During the editorial board, Lessard also said Rally and Race supports the efforts of law enforcement agencies to keep Bike Week orderly and that "we do not promote this as a motorcycle party or gang event. Nor, he said, does Rally and Race "own" Bike Week.

Lessard said press coverage of Bike Week — especially last year when there was controversy about the potential of violence between motorcycle gangs and a flap about limiting the operation of Bike Week beer tents — may have sent "a mixed message" to visitors about how supportive the area is of the rally when the whole goal should be to make those people feel welcome.

Reiterating his initial remarks, Fink stressed that the "economic impact" of Bike Week, which he called "a world-class event," is felt all over the Granite State.

He said that a survey conducted in 2000 by Rally and Race found that during the rally 65 percent of Bike Week visitors also traveled to the White Mountains, 45 percent went to the seacoast, 36 percent to the Monadnock region, 25 percent to the Dartmouth-Sunapee region and 18 percent went to the Merrimack Valley.

The average Bike Week attendee spends about $700 on lodging, meals, gas, entertainment and souvenirs, according to a synopsis of the survey that was in the media kit Fink provided, while the household income of the average visitor ranges between $50,000 and $75,000.

In recent years, an estimated 300,000-plus riders have come from all over the U.S. and Canada and from countries in Europe and other continents, the synopsis said, and collectively Bike Week brings in more than $200 million annually to the state during its nine-day run.