By JOHN KOZIOL

Staff Writer

LACONIA — For some people Motorcycle Week is a pain. But for others in the city, particularly Weirs Beach businesses, it is a godsend.

Those wide-ranging views were expressed at a hearing held at City Hall Wednesday evening.

But although the 50 or so residents and business and property owners who showed up for the Motorcycle Week Advisory Committee hearing had differing opinions on the many facets and, ultimately, the merits of Bike Week, they agreed that noise is one of its major banes and pains.

Formed by the City Council in November 2002 and impaneled in mid-spring, the committee is preparing a report for the council that answers five questions about the rally.

Specifically, the committee is charged with looking objectively at Bike Week "and its impact on the city’s public relations and infrastructure;" determining whether it is "in the city’s best interest to assume responsibility for the event;" determining whether Bike Week’s nine-day length should be changed; examining "ways to create a better working relationship with businesses involved in the event;" and examining "funding alternatives for costs associated with city, county, and state agencies involved in the event."

Scenic Road resident Laurence Lantz was the hearing’s first speaker and identified himself as a "normal citizen" who was "quite sure" that he spoke for "many, many more normal citizens" in The Weirs and the city.

Lantz recounted how when he bought his property 17 years ago, Bike Week was Bike Weekend, but having grown to its current duration, it is now a situation where for him its "noise, confusion and inconvenience has become intolerable."

Motorcyclists aren’t the problem, but loud pipes are, he said, wondering why city and state police don’t enforce noise ordinances.

Apart from being loud, Bike Week disrupts the lives of residents in The Weirs through detours and street closures, said Lantz, noting how, given the city’s ban on four-wheel traffic over the Weirs bridge during the latter part of Bike Week, "I have to drive 32 miles to pick up my mail" at the Weirs Beach Post Office, a journey that normally is one-eighth that distance.

That observation by Lantz rated a knowing chuckle from audience members, but his recollection of how, when traveling out of state, a person responded to his telling them he was from Laconia, drew outright laughter.

Not how beautiful was Laconia, Lake Winnipesaukee or the Lakes Region, but "vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom," Lantz noted, was what the person said upon hearing the name "Laconia."

"That’s the reputation we have in Weirs Beach," said Lantz, and it doesn’t help to make it a destination location for visitors.

The rally should be shortened to four days, Lantz said, with several days for vendors to set up and break down their displays.

Resident Bob Kingsbury compared the vast economic benefit of Bike Week and the almost no cost to the City of Laconia to host it, to the efforts of Manchester spending $27 million to bring a minor league baseball team to the Queen City that at best, attracts a mere 5,000 fans to any one game, whereas Bike Week cumulatively draws more than 300,000 visitors.

Laconia Mayor Mark Fraser said the city lost $15,000 on the event this year, in providing municipal services.

Ken Deshaies, who identified himself as a lifelong Laconia resident, said the attraction of Bike Week was "booze and broads."

Deshaies dismissed the notion that The Weirs during Bike Week is "a family location," despite what businesses there would have people believe.

Responding to Kingsbury’s suggestion that Charlie St. Clair, who is executive director of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Rally and Race Association, should be given an award from the City Council for making the rally as successful as it is, Deshaies had his own idea for what St. Clair should be get.

"I suggest we give the guy a bill," said Deshaies, later adding that St. Clair "sold us a bill of goods. Let him pay the bill."

Chris Perl, who owns the Broken Antler on Watson Road, said shortening Bike Week may not be possible.

"It might be a little late to do that," he said, as many business in The Weirs rely upon the rally for earnings that carry them through the lean, non-tourist months.

Perl, too, said he wasn’t thrilled with how loud Bike Week is, but he wasn’t sure whether anything could be done to correct the problem.

As to whether the city or Rally and Race should take responsibility for running Bike Week, Perl said it didn’t matter as long as somebody did.

Perl, and several other speakers , advocated the city’s sponsoring events in the downtown and in other parts of Laconia during Bike Week to spread the wealth. He suggested that the city consider waiving its $450 vendor fee for Laconia-based merchants who want to set up their wares in The Weirs for Bike Week.

Resident Roger Stone said "the average citizen is not getting anything from this event except a headache." The city, he said, is spending "thousands of dollars" to help what are businesses located predominantly in The Weirs make money from Bike Week,

In what was one of the public hearing’s more interesting proposals, Stone said out-of-state vendors could be located at the NHIS track in Loudon, which has ample parking lots, space for camping and a proven ability to control large crowds and heavy traffic. Local vendors could still set up shop in The Weirs, he said.

Judy Krahulec, who is president of the Weirs Action Committee, said the "they" some of the speakers referred to included civic groups, like her own as well as the Laconia and Meredith Kiwanis clubs, the Laconia Rotary Club, and the Weirs Community Park Association, all of whom raise money during Bike Week that they then put back directly into their communities.

Maybe it’s time that "the morality moves aside for more monetary reasons," in the discussion on Bike Week, said Krahulec, pointing out that capitalism and making money is what the rally is about. The city should do what it can to maximize revenue from Bike Week and in that way lower taxes for its residents, she said.

Also, "There are too many police officers invited to this event" from outside departments who are paid by the city to work during Bike Week, said Krahulec. She proposed that if officers from other agencies wanted to come work the rally they should do it voluntarily, as at Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Jennifer Anderson, who is Rally and Race’s director, said moving Bike Week or portions of it to Loudon was not feasible because the track already has other events scheduled there during the rally. She said no one group or entity can be fully responsible for Bike Week because it is a collection of events scattered throughout the state.

Bret Loring, who owns the Paradise Beach Club, said Bike Week is a veritable lifesaver for his business as after Labor Day, "everything dwindles down to nothing" in The Weirs and the place becomes "pretty desolate" from a business perspective.

Barry Lukatch, who owns the Stonewall Corners property at the intersection of Route 3 and Watson Road, said "the desire of everybody here is to see Motorcycle Week a better event."

To accomplish that, Lukatch said the city should look at Bike Week as a business venture and should compete directly with business in The Weirs because "there’s enough money to go around for everybody."

He said the city should increase its vendor rates and that Laconia municipal officials should meet annually with their counterparts from Sturgis, S.D., and Daytona Beach, Fla., to compare notes about how each of the national bike rallies fared and how they could improve themselves.

St. Clair asked whether the speakers on Wednesday who called for reducing Bike Week down to a weekend actually knew that the rally, had in fact, lasted a full week from the 1940’s through the mid 1960’s and then went to a weekend format before taking its present shape in 1991.

"When people talk about the ‘bad old days" — when visitors lined the roads in and around rally events and drank openly in public, littered and caused other problems — "they talk about Bike Weekend," said St. Clair.

Shortening Bike Week will reduce the number of visitors who come from out of the country or region and will make for a smaller rally, St. Clair said.

He advised that rather than focusing on making Bike Week shorter, attention should be given to how to bring rally-like events — a classic car rally or a winter carnival, for example — to Laconia year-round, or during Bike Week, to venues like the Laconia municipal airport where daredevil Robbie Knevel reportedly wants to demonstrate a trick jump next summer.

Wes Mallorey had the last comments of the evening Wednesday, asking that Bike Week be moved forward a week so as to not conflict with graduations at local high school, so that out-of-town visitors to the graduation ceremonies can find lodging and "to give us a break for Father’s Day" which is the last day of Bike Week.