Gunstock and Chamber likewise withdraw from panel

By JOHN KOZIOL

Staff Writer

LACONIA — The city, Gunstock Recreation Area and the Greater Laconia-Weirs Beach Chamber of Commerce have each withdrawn from the board of directors of the Laconia Motorcycle Rally and Race Week Association.

Mayor Mark Fraser on Tuesday said the city — which like Gunstock and the Chamber — annually pays $2,500 to the association to sit on its board, recently decided not to pay the fee for 2004, even though the City Council had approved doing so when it adopted the 2003-2004 municipal budget this spring.

Fraser said the city has been concerned for several years with how the association accounts for its two-person payroll — the association’s only paid employees are Executive Director Charlie St. Clair and Director Jennifer Anderson — and that due to the association’s failure to address the situation, the City Council had voted to leave the Rally and Race board.

The board, entering Bike Week 2003 this past June, was made up of representatives from the New Hampshire International Speedway, the Weirs Beach Lobster Pound, Meredith Harley Davidson/Buell, the City of Laconia, the Town of Meredith, the Greater Laconia-Weirs Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Naswa Resort, the Lakeside Sharks Motorcycle Club and the Weirs Beach Drive-In.

St. Clair on Tuesday said he was unaware of the city’s withdrawing from the Rally and Race board and referred all inquiries to Paul Lessard, who is the association’s president. Lessard was unavailable for comment.

While Mayor Fraser stressed there was no wrongdoing on the association’s part, he said the manner in which Rally and Race paid St. Clair and Anderson combined with the association’s record-keeping raised concern.

From any organization that receives Laconia taxpayers’ dollars, "we need detailed financial statements of what they do with their money," said Ward 1 City Councilor Paul Bordeau, and they "have not provided that level we need."

Should the association revamp its accounting practices, then the possibility exists that the city could seek to be a member of its board of directors in the future, said Bordeau. He added that "cooperation between the city and board can only benefit the entire Motorcycle Week enterprise."

Ward 5 City Councilor Rick Judkins, who was the city’s representative on the Rally and Race board, was unavailable on Tuesday.

Greg Goddard, who is both Gunstock’s general manager as well as the president of the Greater Laconia-Weirs Beach Chamber of Commerce, confirmed that the members of the Gunstock Area Commission in April or May decided not to be represented on the Rally and Race board anymore and that the chamber’s board of directors made the same decision in August.

In the case of Gunstock, which is owned by Belknap County, "we simply made a decision that it was not in the commission’s best interest ... to continue on the board of directors of that organization," said Goddard. "We still support the efforts of Rally and Race and still support the activities that they’re involved in, we simply decided that we no longer wanted to be on their board."

Gunstock officials are meeting next week with representatives from Ridge Runner Promotions, the company that puts on the annual hill climb at Gunstock during Bike Week, and hopes to secure an agreement to continue hosting the competition for the next three years, said Goddard.

Goddard declined to comment on the City of Laconia’s reason for leaving the Rally and Race board or to say why Gunstock and the chamber left it.

"I sincerely hope that the association will do fine with or without us on their board of directors. I firmly believe in what the association does and wouldn’t speculate whether our participation will help or hurt them at this point," said Goddard.