Township zones against lakeshore erosion
By Scott Sullivan Editor Saugatuck Township has approved a new ordinance to combat coastal erosion and safeguard the ecological and structural integrity of the lakeshore. The Lakeside Overlay District Ordinance, effective starting April 24, applies to all properties west of…
Trailblazers shut out Fennville for third straight win
By Jason WesseldykSports EditorAfter sitting out the previous game while nursing an injury, leading scorer Neave Rewa returned the lineup for the Saugatuck girls soccer team in its showdown with Fennville on Monday, April 28.And Rewa made her presence felt,…
Blue Star
By Scott SullivanEditorGoing ApeBritish scientists say new footage of west African chimps sharing fermented breadfruit suggests booze may link them and man to a common ancestor.“For humans,” said Anna Bowland, a University of Exeter ecologist and lead author of a…
School Boys & Girls Club is on the grow
By Scott SullivanEditorKids come in rambunctious. It’s 3 p.m., school’s out, mom or dad can’t pick them up until they get out of work. Where to go?At Douglas Elementary, they have a place. The school’s Boys and Girls Club, an…
Ferry Street could reopen by next week
By Scott SullivanEditorFerry Street — a key link to homes and tourist attractions including Mt. Baldhead and Oval Beach and Ox-Bow art school — may reopen as soon as next week, Douglas City Manager Lisa Nocerini says.It’s been seven months…
Mike’s Musings: Number of college administrators alarming
Many of you have read my rants concerning higher education. I believe the cost is outrageous and it certainly far outweighs the benefit most students receive.One of the reasons costs have risen extensively over the past decade is that universities…
Life as Performance Art
If there is anything good to be said about doing mindless work such as blowing leaves out of the ground cover, it is that I allow my brain to wander off and play. When it comes back and we reengage,…
Saugatuck UMC to close doors after 160 years
Saugatuck United Methodist Church will suspend operations at the end of this month after a final post-Easter service. The downtown Saugatuck church at 250 Mason St. has hosted served the community for 160 years. “I notified the district last November…
Blaze totals rural storage building
By Scott Sullivan Editor Saugatuck Township Fire District crews joined mutual aid partners from Ganges, Graafschap, Fennville and Hamilton knocking down this storage building and vehicle fire in the 2500 block of 63rd Street early Friday morning. Firefighters responding to…
Old home may soon sell shaved ice
By Scott Sullivan Editor Part of an 1873-built home at 453 W. Center St. across Ferry Street from the Old Root Beer Barrel may soon sell Italian shaved ice if its owner’s plans are realized. Douglas City Council Monday approved…
Douglas to sell 1870s church to Ox-Bow
By Scott Sullivan Editor Douglas City Council agreed Monday to sell the 1870s-built wood-frame former church at 137 W. Center St. to the Ox-Bow School of Art for $430,000. Nonprofit Ox-Bow in 2022 began leasing the space, which had previously…
Saugatuck soccer upends Constantine
By Jason WesseldykSports EditorIt was quite a day for Saugatuck senior Kennedy Gustafson when the Trailblazers hosted SAC rival Constantine on Wednesday, April 16.Not only did Gustafson play half the game in goal and stop two shots, but she also…
Blue Star
By Scott SullivanEditorSearchLily Tomlin won a Tony Award 40 years ago for Best Actress in the one-woman play “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in Universe.”Now NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has provided a sign, but only that, on…
Firefighters snuff blaze near propane tanks
By Scott SullivanEditorSaugatuck Township Fire District crews joined mutual aid partners from Ganges, Graafschap, Fennville and Hamilton knocking dousing a storage building and vehicle fire in the 2500 block of 63rd Street Friday morning.Firefighters responding to the 5 a.m. call…
Local group plans to reopen Mermaid site
By Scott SullivanEditorSaugatuck’s Dockside Marketplace, home of the former Mermaid Bar & Grill and Baldy’s Smoked Meats, has been sold to local investors who plan to reopen it with a fresh look and new restaurant concepts.Boat Shed Properties LLC —…
Life as Performance art
On the whole, as things go, this past week’s surprise natural gas outage, wasn’t really all that bad. It could have been worse; a lot worse. Fortunately, the disruption came when the weather was moderate, so we did not…
Mike’s Musings: Quicksand drama turns in to romantic relationship
I was flipping channels the other night when a question was asked. What did you fear most as a kid? There were a variety of answers but one of the answers was quicksand.I immediately concurred. Quicksand was fear of mine…
Hydrant flushing starts next week
It’s spring hydrant flushing time for Kalamazoo Lake Sewer & Water Authority customers. Work will start Monday, April 21 and continue weekdays from noon to 10 p.m. till complete. Additional flushing may take place the week of April 28 if…
Work brings more water to Riverside
By Scott Sullivan Editor Bringing water to Saugatuck Township’s Riverside Drive isn’t like taking coals to Newcastle. Homes along it and connecting Dugout Road have relied for nearly 100 years on a 2-inch water line patched together out of galvanized…
Old airport land has new name
By Scott Sullivan Editor Saugatuck’s old airport land has a new name: Saugatuck Wilds Nature Preserve. City council Monday agreed to its Parks & Public Works Committee top recommendation, chosen from recommendations made by 98 respondents to a March 11-25…
