CRANBERRY ISLES, Maine — For many, if not most offshore island residents in Maine, having routine transportation to and from the mainland is a crucial part of life.
When a change in ownership or operation of a ferry service looms on the horizon, it can generate a lot of excitement or anxiety among the affected offshore populace.
In the town of Cranberry Isles — composed of five relatively small islands, only two of which have year-round populations — there has been heightened levels of both over the past several months, ever since the owner and operator of Beal & Bunker, which has provided ferry, charter and barge services to the islands for several decades, let it be known this summer that he is planning to sell the family business and retire.
The announcement has prompted much discussion about what should or will be done in the community, which has a summer population between 400 and 500 but, according to the U.S. Census, had an estimated year-round population in 2013 of slightly more than 100. Some in the community think a competing ferry service operator should take over the routes, which operate to and from Northeast Harbor and have schedules that fluctuate with the seasons, while others believe the town should acquire the service so that it can have a say in how it is operated.
Ron Axelrod, chairman of the town’s transportation task force, said Thursday that having consistent and reliable ferry service through the winter enables residents to have jobs and attend school on Mount Desert Island, and to travel off island for medical appointments. The ferry service also provides an important link by delivering U.S. mail to Little Cranberry and Great Cranberry islands.
“The island communities will die if we don’t have reliable ferry service,” Axelrod said.
The town has scheduled a special town meeting for 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Congregational Church on Great Cranberry Island, to address the issue.
At the meeting, voters will be asked if they want to authorize selectmen to contact and possibly negotiate with potential ferry service providers, with the understanding that any final agreement would have to be approved at a subsequent town meeting vote before it goes into effect.
Voters also are expected to decide Saturday if the town will borrow $40,000 to develop and begin implementing a long-term ferry service plan for the islands.
David Bunker, a resident of Great Cranberry Island and owner of Beal & Bunker, declined to comment Wednesday about the situation.
Steve Pagels, owner and operator of the seasonal Cranberry Cove ferry service, which operates between Southwest Harbor on MDI and the islands in the summer, said Wednesday he has contacted Bunker to express his possible interest in buying Beal & Bunker, but that they have not met to discuss it.
“I’ve left the door open,” Pagels said.
According to Axelrod, the town’s transportation task force was formed in 2014 after residents approached selectmen with concerns about the existing ferry service. Selectmen wanted to explore what the town might be able to do to make sure the islands’ long-term transportation needs would be met, he said.
The task force’s mission became more urgent this past summer when members heard that Beal & Bunker may not be able to continue operating through the winter, Axelrod said. That fear turned out to be unfounded after Bunker assured the town in writing that he would keep the service going throughout this winter or until another entity had acquired it and was able to take over its operation.
“It was more rumor than anything,” Axelrod said.
Axelrod said the task force took a ridership survey of the ferry services to get the demographics of ferry riders, reviews of the existing offerings, and to find out what kind of service they prefer, including possible commuter runs, timing and frequencies of trips, and fares. He said 190 people participated in the survey, including summer residents and people who live off-island but whose work brings them out.
If the town ultimately decides to set up its own ferry service, which likely would be run by a hired contractor, the survey’s results would be considered in working out some details, Axelrod said, but more information would have to be collected before all the specifics are determined.
For example, the task force likely would recommend that the new service include stops in both Southwest Harbor and Northeast Harbor, but whether the town would hire a private business to run it or set up a nonprofit entity — which the town of Isle Au Haut has done — has not been decided.
“The nonprofit model gives us a lot of flexibility,” he said, adding that grants or other outside funding could be used to help pay for the service.
The town of Cranberry Isles already has experience in directly addressing some of its residents’ marine transportation needs. In 2003, it acquired waterfront property in Manset in Southwest Harbor to ensure that its residents would have a place to park their cars and a pier to use for boat rides to and from the islands.
Five years ago, it contracted with Pagels to provide an offseason commuter service between the islands and Northeast Harbor, from mid-October through the end of April, so residents could get to jobs on MDI or to the high school in Bar Harbor and then return home again in the evening. The town is paying $52,000 this winter to subsidize the service and has set a per-passenger, one-way fare of $7 that Pagels gets to keep for his expenses.
Pagels acknowledged that there has been some disagreement among island residents, some of whom are seasonal and are not registered to vote in the town, about whether the town should take over the regular ferry service, which also is contracted with the U.S. Postal Service to bring mail to and from the islands.
“That’s an island decision,” Pagels said.
Pagels said that whether the town decides to set up and contract out its own year-round ferry service or leave it to the private sector, island residents should keep one thing in mind: keeping a commercial passenger ferry in near-constant motion for 12 hours a day is a costly enterprise that does not generate high profit margins.
“It’s not inexpensive,” Pagels said. “I’m not sure of anyone who is in the ferry service [business] to get themselves rich.”
Pagels acknowledged that he has faced some personal financial challenges in the past year, as a result of a civil lawsuit he lost in court, but said his tour and ferry boat businesses have survived despite his legal woes.
“We are still standing,” he said. “We are still here.”
Joy Sprague, the postmistress on Little Cranberry Island and one of the town’s three elected selectmen, said Wednesday that whatever the future holds, it will be difficult for any ferry operator to replicate the year-round service Beal & Bunker has provided to the islands for more than 60 years.
David Bunker’s father, Wilfred Bunker, who passed away in 2012, used to ferry people from one island to another free of charge so they could attend wintertime social gatherings, she said.
“They’ve been a wonderful asset to this community,” she said of the Bunkers.
The ferry service is not the only local institution with a future that is up in the air. The Islesford Market, a seasonal store that sells staple grocery items and which houses the local Post Office, also is being offered for sale, though co-owner Susan Valdina says she and her family still are not sure if they will sell it paired with or separately from the former town office next door, which they also own.
As for the ferry service, Valdina said she thinks the angst over its future is much ado about nothing.
“I think everything’s going to turn out fine,” she said.
