The much-ballyhooed possibility of tens of thousands of leather-clad Harley-Davidson aficionados rumbling into Cortez over Labor Day weekend 2002 have faded out of earshot.

Montezuma County will not be hosting the Four Corners Iron Horse Motorcycle rally, the commissioners decided during a special meeting with rally organizers and local officials Friday afternoon.

Citing the pressures of such a large event on local law-enforcement, fire and rescue services, and the community at large, the commissioners told rally organizers that having the event at the county fairgrounds was not feasible.

Commission chairman Kent Lindsay, reading from a prepared statement, listed the positives of hosting such a rally, such as millions of dollars in economic benefits and tourism recognition. But, he concluded, the negatives clearly outweighed those benefits.

"Noise, traffic congestion, plus you must take into consideration the fear of violence or immoral behavior," Lindsay said of the commission’s reasons for turning the rally down. "Overwhelming demand on our public services was high on the list; also there are negative tourism impacts."

Lindsay cited public safety concerns as the main reason the county cannot host the rally. "Thus we shall not," he said.

The commissioners said they would not lift the existing alcohol ban at the fairgrounds, a prerequisite for holding the rally.

"At this time we as commissioners will not remove, revoke, or alter the no-alcohol policy at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds," Lindsay said.

The announcement came despite an impassioned plea earlier at the meeting by rally supporters, accompanied by event president Warren "Easy" Bernard, who accused local media of unfairly painting the rally in a bad light.

"It seems that they just want to sensationalize an issue — which is to write only what they feel will sell papers," said a statement read by one of the supporters. "That is to talk of the crashes, the outrageous behavior of a very few and in general portray a very slanted view of our entire event."

The statement said that positives were rarely if ever mentioned, such as the proceeds the group gives to local charity, the church services held at the rally, how participants effectively police themselves, and myriad forms of entertainment offered.

"This rally has done wonderful things for the Ignacio community — and yet no media has ever covered these sides of our rally," the statement continued. "Please don’t make a rash decision based on erroneous information from people that are uninformed about what our event is about."

Still, all three commissioners were steadfast in their decision not to allow the raucous event, emphasizing that the biker stereotype had no influence on their decision.

"I would love to have a Harley myself," said Commissioner Gene Story. "But we needed to take a larger view of this and the impacts it would have on public facilities and the community as a whole."

Story said that the magnitude of the event that last year brought 30,000 cyclists to the Sky Ute Downs in Ignacio was a big part of the decision.

"We’re not prepared for that," he said. "The negatives of what could potentially happen I did not give much credence to, but that is a large amount of people, no matter who they are."

In support of the decision, Commissioner Kelly Wilson said that fact that the Ute Mountain High School Rodeo has a prior commitment to the Labor Day weekend at the fairgrounds needs to be respected.

"To break up something here that we fought so hard to get" would not be right, Wilson said.

The commissioners thanked the rally organizers for their professionalism and wished them good luck.