Bike week budget squeezed

City Manager Eileen Cabanel said yesterday that revenues from Motorcycle Week have reached $161,725, or 71-percent of the $226,700 that was budgeted.

Rental income from vending spaces on the boardwalk at The Weirs and Lakeport is $13,500, a third of the $40,000 projected. Rents on the boardwalk were reduced prior to start of the rally while there has been no demand for vendor spaces at the Lakeport Fire Station.

The city collected $15,525 in fees for site plan reviews, about two-thirds of the $23,000 anticipated.

Fees from vendor licenses, which represents 70-percent of all projected revenue, total $132,700, $27,300 less than projected. Cabanel said that more than $20,000 has been collected since the rally opened from vendors who incurred a late fee of $100 after failing to register by last week's deadline.

Beginning with the 2007-2008 budget, the city has managed Motorcycle Week as a special revenue fund, projecting that its revenues will match or exceed its expenditures. Nevertheless, Cabanel said "I'm not concerned." She said that rainy weather shrank the crowds on Sunday and Monday, enabling both the police and fire departments to deploy less personnel, and anticipated that further savings in payroll costs, which account for three-quarters of the entire budget for Motorcycle Week, would be achieved in the remaining days of the rally. "If it gets really tight, I'll ask the police chief and fire chief to cut back. We've done that before."

Police Chef Mike Moyer said that "we're taking it one day at a time, watching the crowds and sending people home if they're not needed."