By Scott Sullivan Editor Page 82 of this Thursday’s Saugatuck Planning Commission agenda packet lists learning that PC member C.J. Bagierek has likely operated a short-term rental on his 610 Lake St. properly illegally as a “Learning and Improvement Opportunity.” …

By Scott Sullivan Editor Debbi Larsen, 3071 May St., wrote the City of Douglas March 9 about her neighbor’s chickens. “These issues,” she said, “began over 2 years ago when Cassandra (not her real name) came to my door asking…

By Scott Sullivan Editor Will Douglas settle for letting more and more roads crumble? city manager Lisa Nocerini posed it not quite that way. New PASER (Pavement Surface Evaluation Rating) figures more than one-third of the city’s 16 road miles…

By Jim Hayden Correspondent The Laketown Township Board at a special meeting March 12 paused paving a dead-end road for financial concerns. They the week before had green-lit paving 61st Street north of 138th Avenue for about $441,000. The decision,…

By Jim Hayden Corresondent New stairs at Laketown Township Beach might be built this year following a township board decision March 12. Laketown applying for a state grant for other work at the beach as well. The board unanimously voted…

The Saugatuck-Douglas History Center, 130 Center St., downtown Douglas, will celebrate Women’s History Month on Rosie the Riveter Day this Saturday, March 21 hosting former Tribute Rosie Debra Wake.  Doors will open at 2 for her 3 p.m. presentation. All…

By Scott Sullivan Editor Saugatuck Township wants to replace “a right-of-way in the air” with a grounded north-south connecting road inland from where Lakeshore Drive washed out nearly 40 years. But so far the estimated $9+-million project has met, and…

Pups and their people prevailed at downtown Douglas’s annual pre-St. Patricks Day Erin Go Bark pet parade last Saturday. Lakeshore Pet Boutique once again organized the bash. (Photos by Scott Sullivan)

By Scott SullivanEditorDouble ThreatThok-thok-thok. One blow after another is good in pickleball for the players. Less so for editors who assume — i.e. make an ASS of U and ME — Saugatuck City Council March 9 would rubber-stamp its Parks…

Sometime in the 1970s my late wife Pat was hired to run an elder artists program for the City of Chicago. Her job was to recruit senior citizens to design and make art to be sold in places like Carson…

Every time Americans pull up to the pump, they’re told the same story: gas prices are high because of global supply problems, geopolitical tensions, or refinery issues. Those factors certainly play a role. For instance the war with Iran has…

By Jason WesseldykSports EditorWinning a district championship.That’s good. Really good. But it could be better.How about winning a district championship in comeback fashion?That’s getting closer … but still not quite good enough.Winning a district championship in comeback fashion in front…

By Scott SullivanEditorThe WendigoA pickleball brawl broke out on Spruce Creek Country Club courts Feb. 8 in Port Orange, Fla. Seems Tony Sapienza, 63 and wife Julianne, 51 and a rival senior couple fought over rules, Tony hammered plaintiff in…

By Scott SullivanEditorBig Lake winter gales make for whiteouts sweeping over and under north-south bridges here. Rescuers call these wind funnels.When lightly-loaded trailers with high profiles are engulfed in these blasts, they turn into sails, jackknife but bring nouveau Evel…

I love laughter within boundaries of good taste. We laugh when we see a pompous, self-important individual slipping on the sidewalk; it is not funny when it happens to one of The Olds or someone who is disabled. Rule #1:…

When the tornado tore through Three Rivers, Michigan on the afternoon of March 6, it left behind a landscape that residents will remember for years. In a matter of minutes, powerful winds—later rated an EF-2 tornado with speeds near 130…

By Jason WesseldykSports EditorSeveral Saugatuck student-athletes turned in strong performances at the Indoor Track & Field State Finals on Sunday, March 1.The Trailblazers’ 4×800-meter relay team of Lyvia Curtis, Alina Martinson, Kamryn Sixberry and Ellyse Heyser delivered a season-best performance,…

By Scott SullivanEditorPizza ParadigmsPapa John’s has premiered a pan pizza it proclaims will “change the paradigm in pizzas.”To crack the code of what that meant, two newly- dubbed Pizza Performance Poobahs were peer-anointed a $20 budget (“Don’t go over $30)…

… seen Friday, Jan. 27, at Oval Beach just before the Blood Red Moon caused by lunar eclipse and six Solar System planets realigning in luminous changing patterns. (Photo by Scott Sullivan)

By Scott SullivanEditorPer a tip last week, a semi crossing the I-196 bridge crashed and spilled “potentially 25,000 pounds” of plastic pellets into the Kalamazoo River. What does“potentially” mean and what plots might it perpetuate? The PPT rhythms sucked me…