Motorcycle Week to be more — but not exactly — like normal

LACONIA — Motorcycle Week will look more like normal this year, based on guidance the City Council has given the city manager.

The council on Monday voted to support holding the annual event during the traditional mid-June dates, but to limit by as much as half the number of vendors due to ongoing concerns about COVID-19. However, the council said the restrictions could be loosened over the next three months if data regarding vaccinations and infection rates continue to improve.

The councilors said that approach would provide an economic boost to businesses which suffered last year when Laconia Motorcycle Week was postponed until the second half of August and commercial vendors, beer tents and pop-up outside entertainment stages were banned.

The beer tents and outside entertainment not associated with an existing establishment would not be allowed this year either, based on the current plan.

All six councilors voiced support for the plan. But Councilor Tony Felch said he saw no reason for the additional restrictions.

“It’s a good start,” Charlie St. Clair, executive director of the Motorcycle Week Association said Tuesday. Asked about the limitations, he said, “I understand their concerns.”

But he expressed optimism that as the time draws closer to the event there would be fewer restrictions.

“I think it’s premature to say that none of that will happen,” he said.

Felch said, based on the rate that vaccinations are occurring, all adults who intend to be inoculated should have had their shots by the end of May, thereby removing the need for any restrictions when Motorcycle Week begins on June 12.

But Councilor Henry Lipman was less confident.

“There are some things that are favorable, but it’s not a pretty picture,” he said.

Councilor Bruce Cheney said that while some restrictions may be necessary, the city also needs to acknowledge that those people who come for Motorcycle Week bear responsibility for protecting their own health.

A number of people called into the council’s virtual meeting in support of holding the event on June 12-20.

“Because of the (COVID) guidelines businesses can safely put on the event,” Amy Landers of the Lakes Region Tourism Association told the council.

City Planning Director Dean Trefethen, whose office handles the Motorcycle Week vendor permits, said Tuesday his office would look at layouts of the vendor sites in 2019 and then figure how to space the vendor set-ups apart in keeping with the 50% restriction.

“That’s the biggest thing we’re going to have to figure out,” he said.

In the past there have been “100 vendors or more” set up on about 15 different properties on Lakeside Avenue, around the intersection of Weirs Boulevard and Route 11B, and along Endicott Street North, Trefethen said.

Myers told the meeting that existing restaurants which offer food, beverage, and entertainment would be able to operate as usual, under the state’s COVID guidelines. He encouraged those businesses who want to apply to put up tents for outside dining to do so.

St. Clair noted that while the city is looking at restrictions, Meredith will be allowing vendors as usual in front of Laconia Harley-Davidson in that town, and that vendors will be allowed to set up as in the past at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway where where motorcycle races are scheduled to take place June 12 and 13, and June 18 through 20.

“The safest place to be is outside,” he said.

The council’s decision to commit to the June 12-20 dates will be good for business, said Cynthia Makris, who operates the Naswa resort on Weirs Boulevard.

She said many motorcycle enthusiasts, who traditionally stay at the Naswa, have been holding off confirming their reservations waiting for the dates to be set.

“People have been waiting to see what is happening,” Makris said. “Now people will feel good about making reservations," she added, noting the resort still has empty room for Motorcycle Week.

St. Clair said restricting the number of vendors will hurt the local economy because the property owners who rent out to vendors will not be making as much money as usual.

“The money that these local businesses make (from vendors) filters into the local economy,” he said.