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MEAFORD, ONT - Old rockers never die, they just play Coffin Hill. At least that was the idea two promoters had when they got permission six years ago from local authorities to turn the nearby casket-shaped hill into a home for an annual summer rock festival featuring veteran performers. Last year the first Great Lakes Jam, featuring Alice Cooper, Steppenwolf and Joe Walsh, drew as many as 10,000 fans a day over three days. It also drew complaints from local residents. Now the mayor says the licence for last year's festival was issued by mistake.

Until last year, Meaford had been left out of a property boom going on in the region for retirement and vacation homes. Now, as the town of 10,500 begins to cash in on its image of quiet and tranquility, locals are starting to wonder whether the Great Lakes Jam fits that image. Such large seasonal gatherings inject money into a small town. But that wasn't appealing enough to save Wakestock, a wakeboarding and music festival that drew more than 40,000 people and brought $6 million into the economy of Wasaga Beach last summer. After considering complaints by residents and some local businesses, the town council banned the event last month.

The Great Lakes Jam got its start in the late 1990s, with landowner Steward Madill's failed attempt to open a casino on his 92-hectare parcel of land over looking Georgian Bay, near Owen Sound. During the casino bid, Madill consulted with concert producer Wolfgang Siebert about entertainment. The casino bid lost in a referendum, 57 per cent to 43 per cent, but Siebert was so impressed with the site - which, along with the hill, boasts a natural amphitheatre - that he joined forces with Madill to get permits to run concerts there. "We made sure we went through all the hoops to get all the proper licensing," Madill said on a recent Saturday, in between pumping gas at his station in Markdale, 40 kilometres to the south.

Last March, Meaford town council passed a resolution supporting a bylaw and various resolutions passed by the former Sydenham Township to allow four concerts on the site. Siebert, confident that Meaford was honouring the decision made by Sydenham before the township become part of Meaford during amalgamation in 2000, said he raised $3 million from investors to stage four annual classic rock concerts. Siebert said he spent "hundreds of thousands of dollars" on site improvements before booking an impressive lineup that also included the Animals and Cheap Trick for the Great Lakes Jam on the Aug. 27 weekend.

"I'm into rock'n' roll, and I can tell you that concert was excellent; the music, the way it was run, all very impressive," said Greg Conrod, a cabinetmaker, who owns an adjoining property. But as Conrod added, bringing a rock concert to a rural community is "like stirring up a hornets nest." Residents have filled the council chambers in recent months, with complaints about noise, drunken concert goers causing havoc and traffic snarls on their rural roads.

Sgt. Ken MacPherson, of Grey County Ontario Provincial Police, said that during the three days of the festival, 22 liquor offence charges were laid, plus a handful of other minor charges such as trespassing or driving without insurance. "It was all pretty minor stuff, it was pretty quiet as far as we were concerned," MacPherson said.

Resident Peter Silvester said he's a rock music fan, but he told Meaford council he is concerned the association with performers such as Alice Cooper will shatter the community's image as a small, quiet, peaceful place to live. "I was in the music business myself, but there is a time and place for everything and this kind of concert doesn't have a place here;" said Silvester, who retired to the area. "Is this how we want to be known across Ontario?" asked Silvester, showing council a photograph of Alice Cooper at the Great Lakes Jam on the front page of the Meaford Express.

Part of the growing opposition is linked to a mini building boom in the area. Neighbouring communities such as Town of the Blue Mountains and Collingwood. have experienced major building booms in the past five years. Now Meaford has caught the wave. In 2004, building activity was up 65 per cent from the previous year, much of that because of an influx of semi retired and retired people, said chief town building official John Acres. "It's gorgeous here, so its no surprise," Acres said.

The fate of the next Great Lakes Jam is now up in the air. The resolution passed by Meaford town council last March refers to four concerts. But Meaford Mayor Wally Reif insisted in an interview last week that all discussions with Siebert were based on council issuing a permit for only one concert and then revisiting the idea. Reif said council mistakenly passed the resolution after town staff failed to inform council that the Sydenham bylaw had expired. "We made a decision out of ignorance. Someone should have known better and should have advised us"; said Reif. Now Meaford council must follow a process that includes public consultations before deciding whether to issue another permit, Reif said.

Siebert disagrees. "The plan was always for four concerts; that's the only way it makes financial sense," he said. Siebert said the public-meeting process is guaranteed to delay approval for the Great Lakes Jam already scheduled for July 29-Aug. 1. That will cost him sponsors and the opportunity to reserve top performers, he said. So he brought in a different kind of veteran performer: former Ontario cabinet minister Chris Stockwell.

At a recent planning committee meeting, Stockwell appeared as a representative for Siebert and threatened the committee with a lawsuit unless the permit is issued promptly. The town made a commitment for four concerts and festival organizers "acted in good faith" and "relied upon that " and will in turn be sued by investors who won't be able to recoup their losses from last years concert if this year's doesn't go ahead, Stockwell said. "We will not go quietly. We told them (the planning committee) they made the mistake, so they have to fix it," Stockwell said in an interview.

Siebert, armed with a copy of the March 2004 resolution and another passed on Aug. 13, 2001, allowing four concerts "independent of each other," said he is forging ahead with this year's festival. Reif, meanwhile, agreed there are potential benefits from having such high profile concerts in the community such as increased tax revenue and possibly cash to fix roads. "It could be wonderful for our town. Reif said. "But we have to do this right and give the people who have been unfairly painted as nay sayers an opportunity to be heard, Then, and only the council can consider if the festival is good for the community and, if so, if the greater good outweighs any inconvenience.