Paul (known to friends and family as Pete/Peter), passed away at his home on Jan. 2 due to complications of kidney disease. He is dearly missed by his loving wife of 63 years, Judy Smith Polka and his “girls” Stephanie Polka…

By Scott SullivanEditorPolar ExpressMy imaginary polar trip, paired with Ron and Maggie Conklin’s real one, had grown more dire. We were on a 10-foot Zodiac ‘twixt Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica, provisions out. Chef had smashed a penguin, pried it…

By Scott SullivanEditorBowlingIn the media room, media converge. Ex-WZZM-TV news anchor/now Saugatuck Mayor Pro-Tem Lauren Stanton, husband and Retro Boats co-visionary John Sharer and Tony (Of Love) D’Amato.For 24 years Damato (no apostrophe) birthed and skippered the Red Dock, a…

   I have often said or written that I find a new calendar, the type with large square boxes, delightful.  There, spread out over twelve months, are some 365 days, with a bonus one every four years,  of the coming year. Some are…

Wayne William Nestander, the elder son of Lutheran minister Palmer Sigurd Nestander and his wife Florence Hildur, was born June 9, 1930, in Alta, Iowa. He completed much of his grade school there until Palmer was called to serve a…

Donald Vander Leek, age 82, passed away on Dec. 27, 2022 in Holland. A Celebration of Life service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7 at Lakeshore Memorial Services, 11939 James St. Holland, MI 49424. A time of…

By Scott SullivanEditorImaginary NumbersGet negative and zero times real (whole or natural, no fractions) numbers? Now multiply the latter (aka rational numbers or integers) by imaginary constant i.I’d guess -178 x i % of us have no use for impractical…

By Scott SullivanEditorAs 2023 dawns despite our protests, we return to Rear In Your View lessons 2022 didn’t teach us. AprilCommunity Church of Douglas, having sold the west 50 of its 80 acres at 6874 Wiley Road to Lakeside Pastures…

By Scott SullivanEditorA 3-story, mixed-use building at 200 Center St. is being proposed by Douglas Flats, LLC. It would be part of an existing planned unit development sharing a real estate office, vacant land west of the Saugatuck-Douglas District Library…

    Years ago, I discovered there is a sweet spot-on Christmas Eve afternoon.  I like to go for a short solitary walk, but not this year.  I go out about the time that many stores begin closing their doors,  sending their staff and customers…

It’s a new year, and I’m counting on President Biden to do the right thing in 2023, when it comes to imprisoned journalist, Julian Assange.Assange, founder of Wikileaks, began publishing millions of pages of classified materials critical of the United…

David Lee Von Ins (DVI to everyone who knew him) died peacefully, surrounded by his family on the morning of Dec. 22, 2022 at age 80.He is survived by the love of his life and great beauty Jan; his exceptional…

Dr. Edmundo Utanes Sanchez, MD, age 82, met with our Heavenly Father on Saturday, Dec/ 17, 2022.He was born in Manila, Philippines to Walterio Vicente Sanchez and Eustachia Utanes Sanchez on Dec. 26, 1939. He was the eldest of 9…

By Scott SullivanEditorHomeboundAll I wanted for Christmas is a bomb cyclone, colonoscopy, mad dog, survival.Not necessarily in that sequence.First, scheduling. I’d dragged my feet for 2 years past my quinquennial doctor-ordered flushing, having twice before not enjoyed them.After our family…

By Jim HaydenCorrespondentSaugatuck Town Crier Art Tolsma has been climbing ladders and fixing roofs for more than 30 years, so he’s right at home in high places. But 552 feet above the Straits of Mackinac, looking out from the main…

By Jason WesseldykSports EditorSAUGATUCK—Make it three wins in a row for the Saugatuck boys basketball team.Hosting Zion Christian on Tuesday, Dec. 20, the Trailblazers posted the 54-48 victory to improve to 3-1.Not that it was easy.“This was a tough game…

   No doubt you have seen a televised insurance company commercial where an older fellow is trying to help a group of young people avoid turning into their parents.  It is such a clever ad I cannot remember the name of the…

I agree with Sen. Rand Paul on some initiatives and disagree on others, but one item we are lock step with is federal spending. I believe our money (the taxpayers fund the federal government) is used for all sorts of…

Jerry Leigh Hill, 88, died peacefully in his sleep Dec. 8, 2022, in his Stuart, Fla. home.There will be no public service but a memorial service will be held in Michigan in 2023 with details still to be determinedIn lieu…

By Scott SullivanEditorFormsAsked ethnicity, skin color, cultural/sexual identity … just check boxes the form provides. Conclude each one excludes others.Am I:• Irish, English, French, German … (God knows what my dad, with more research, might have dug up)?• Caucasian (originally…