Bangor panel OKs pact with river cruises firm

BANGOR – A Bar Harbor company’s plans to bring hour-long river cruises to Bangor has been given the green light.

During a meeting Tuesday at City Hall, Capt. Steven Pagels’ request to lease city dock space was granted by members of the City Council’s transportation and infrastructure committee, according to Rod McKay, the city’s community and economic development director.

City councilors serving on the subcommittee agreed to provide a one-year lease with two one-year renewal options, McKay said.

Pagels owns Downeast Windjammer Cruises, which offers windjammer cruises aboard the Margaret Todd, ferry service between Bar Harbor and Winter Harbor and between Southwest Harbor and the Cranberry Isles, and fishing trips on Frenchman Bay, among other things.

Though the schedule still is being firmed up, the cruises likely will start in late spring or early summer, Pagels’ son Capt. Randy Pagels said last week during a presentation for the harbor committee.

McKay said Pagels wants to offer multiple hour-long cruises on the Penobscot River on Thursday through Sunday of each week of his season here. The scenic cruises, which might be narrated, would start and end at Bangor Waterfront.

Though Pagels said it wasn’t yet clear which boat would be assigned to Bangor, he did say that the boat would have a capacity of at least 49 passengers.

Windjammer will join cruise lines now using Bangor Waterfront as a home port. Both of those businesses, however, operate one-week or longer trips.

American Cruise Lines, based in Haddam, Conn., has been here for the past three seasons.

Last year, American was joined by Cruise West, with headquarters in Seattle, Wash.