NIAGARA FALLS &#8212 Maid of the Mist tours will soon launch for their 125th consecutive

summer, but a festering controversy over the attraction&#8217s Canadian and American leases

has cast uncertainity over the future of the famous boats.

Could this be the last season for the American family that has owned the company since

1971?

A political firestorm in Ontario over a secretive parks commission process that has given

the Glynn family exclusive rights to offer boat tours below the falls has led the government

to order open, competitive bidding for the Canadian shore lease for the first time &#8212 a

move that also could have implications for the family&#8217s New York operation.

Documents: Lease with New York state Lease with Ontario

Opening the contract in Canada to other bidders has raised questions about the future of

the boat tours, including:

Who else might one day run the boat rides, and how soon could a new company bring in

boats and start operating tours?

If someone else wins the Canadian lease, would the attraction continue to be called

the &#8220Maid of the Mist?&#8221

Could the Maid of the Mist operate exclusively from the American side of the falls,

where the steep gorge wall and rocky terrain leave little room for storing boats?

The competition may be one of the toughest challenges the owners of the Maid of the Mist

have faced since James V. Glynn bought the company nearly 40 years ago from Frank LeBlond,

whose family was among the attraction&#8217s original investors.

&#8220We&#8217re not taking it lightly, and we were surprised to be in this position,&#8221

said Christopher M. Glynn, son of James Glynn and Maid of the Mist president. &#8220But

nevertheless, that&#8217s the prerogative of the government of Ontario.&#8221

The Maid of the Mist Corp. and its Canadian subsidiary, Maid of the Mist Steamboat Co., own

the boats and floating docks used for the operation. The companies also have filed trademarks

in the United States and Canada to use the &#8220Maid of the Mist&#8221 name on boat tours.

They have managed to maintain their leases with Ontario and New York parks agencies without

competition for more than a century with the argument they are the only businesses in a

position to operate on both the Canadian and American sides of the Niagara River.

As the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Co. prepares for the 2010 tourist season, it will

continue operating in Ontario on a month-to-month lease. Beyond that, little is clear.

Christopher Glynn contends there is a &#8220fallacy of a smooth transition&#8221 if a new

operator were to win the bidding process. The company, he said, has invested more than $20

million in boats, docks and infrastructure on both sides of the border during the last 20

years.

&#8220If we were not successful,&#8221 he said, &#8220we believe there would be an

interruption of service that would be substantial, and it&#8217s hard to say how long that

would be and whether it would be just on the Canadian side.&#8221

Mysterious meetings

The controversy started two years ago, when an outspoken Ontario oil man raised questions

about why the Niagara Parks Commission in Ontario was trying to push through a 25-year lease

renewal with the Maid of the Mist without seeking other bids.

It was Bob Gale&#8217s concerns about the Canadian renewal that led to a government review

of the Niagara Parks Commission last year. The review faulted the agency for being overly

political and shrouded in &#8220mystique.&#8221

Gale&#8217s questions eventually helped throw open the doors to the Niagara Parks

Commission, which met in public for the first time earlier this year.

&#8220If somebody had told me I would be where we are today two years ago when this

started, I&#8217d be amazed,&#8221 said Gale, who quit the Niagara Parks Commission in 2008 to

protest the way it handled the Maid of the Mist lease renewal. &#8220Finally, after 100 and

some odd years, they have an open meeting at the Niagara Parks Commission. That&#8217s

unbelievable.&#8221

Ontario&#8217s minister of tourism ordered the lease for the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Co.

in Canada opened to competitive bidding nearly five months ago.

Details of the bidding process have just started to emerge. Among them: a procurement

specialist, a naval architect and a &#8220fairness commissioner&#8221 have been hired to

oversee the process, in part to allay fears that the Maid of the Mist has an inside advantage

because of its long relationship with the Parks Commission.

Patricia Mangoff, coordinator for Preserve Our Parks in Ontario, is one of several critics

who question whether the bidding process can be fair after the Parks Commission has twice

tried to sign a 25-year contract with the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Co. without allowing

other companies to submit proposals.

&#8220We don&#8217t care who wins the bids,&#8221 Mangoff said, &#8220as long as it&#8217s

open, and it&#8217s a fair process, and it&#8217s good for the people.&#8221

Gale has also expressed skepticism that taxpayer interests will be at the heart of any

decision regarding the Maid of the Mist&#8217s Ontario lease if the members of the Parks

Commission remain the same.

&#8220The New York State citizens and the Ontario citizens have been let down by both

governments,&#8221 said Gale, who owns a chain of gasoline outlets in Ontario and once counted

the Maid of the Mist among his customers.

Limited storage

What happens in Canada could impact Niagara Falls State Park on the New York side, where

the Maid of the Mist does 25 percent to 35 percent of its business and reported $12.4 million

in gross sales last year.

New York State&#8217s 40-year license with the Maid of the Mist was quietly signed in 2002

with no public notice and no public bidding. It runs until 2043.

The Maid of the Mist&#8217s current fleet of four boats &#8212 two that can carry 600

people and two that carry 300 &#8212 were either lowered into the gorge or assembled on a plot

of flat land on the Canadian side of the Niagara River. The boats are stored on that land

during the winter.

There is no similar patch of land on the U.S. side, which is why New York officials have

argued that the Maid of the Mist is the only company in a position to offer boat rides from

Niagara Falls State Park and that it did not need to seek competitive proposals for the boat

tour license.

&#8220The Maid of the Mist can operate from Canada without the [state parks] agency, but we

cannot offer the attraction from the American side without the corporation,&#8221 Christopher

M. Pushkarsh, then a deputy state parks commissioner, wrote in a 2003 letter defending the

40-year concession license to the state comptroller&#8217s office.

Pushkarsh, in the letter, said the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

was in a &#8220relatively weak bargaining position&#8221 when it renewed the lease and

extended its terms until 2043.

He also wrote that if the Maid of the Mist was unable to renew its docking rights on the

Canadian side of the river, &#8220the corporation would be unable to perform and would be in

default under the termination provisions of our contract.&#8221

That situation, Pushkarsh said, &#8220is extremely unlikely to occur&#8221 in light of the

Maid of the Mist&#8217s &#8220long operating history.&#8221

Seven years later, that is exactly the possibility the Maid of the Mist faces.

Today, New York State officials won&#8217t speculate on what would happen if the Maid of

the Mist loses its Canadian lease.

&#8220At this point, we have a contract and the terms of the contract are being fulfilled,

and we will continue working with the Maid of the Mist under the terms that are spelled out in

the contract,&#8221 said state parks spokeswoman Eileen Larrabee.

The Glynns have hired an engineering firm to explore what is possible on the American

shore.

Others aren&#8217t waiting to see what impact the Canadian bid process might have on the

Maid of the Mist&#8217s New York license.

Bidders line up

An Atlanta businessman, William M. Windsor, last year sued New York State and the Maid of

the Mist Corp. in an attempt to void the state&#8217s 40-year license.

Windsor contends the state erred when it determined that the Maid of the Mist is a

&#8220sole-source provider&#8221 because of the company&#8217s Ontario lease, and claims that

another company could provide equal or better boat service given the opportunity.

He also claims the Maid of the Mist did not have the right to trademark its name &#8212 a

point the company disputes.

&#8220I have not run a boat business of the type of the Maid of the Mist, but it&#8217s a

simple business,&#8221 said Windsor, who plans to bid on the Ontario lease. &#8220You get

skilled captains and crews to operate the boats and then you do a good job, an excellent job,

providing customer service and reservations and ticketing.&#8221

Aside from Windsor, a general manager for Ripley Entertainment, which owns Ripley&#8217s

Believe it or Not! in Ontario, complained in 2008 that it has been shut out of bidding on the

Ontario contract and has publicly expressed interest in submitting a proposal.

Windsor said that more than 12 companies have signed up to bid on the lease. The Niagara

Parks Commission, however, has not released the names or number of potential bidders.

It is also unclear how ticket prices &#8212 currently $14.50 (Canadian) for boat tours

departing from Ontario &#8212 could be impacted.

Albany County Court Judge Joseph C. Teresi dismissed Windsor&#8217s lawsuit March 7, ruling

that it was filed years too late. Windsor, who has a tangled legal history with the Maid of

the Mist that stems from a 2005 dispute regarding online ticket sales, has filed motions

asking the judge to reconsider his decision.

Windsor, who has been called &#8220stubbornly litigious&#8221 by a federal judge in

Georgia, says he is simply standing up for his rights.

Meanwhile, the boats at the center of the controversy will launch for the tourist season

Saturday, and potential bidders recently toured the operations.

Christopher Glynn, who spoke to The Buffalo News prior to signing a non-disclosure

agreement as part of the Ontario bidding process, is positive his company will win.

&#8220I think the future is bright for the Maid of the Mist,&#8221 he said.

&#8220We&#8217ve been here a long time, and I think we&#8217ll be here for a long time to

come.&#8221