By Scott SullivanEditorIt’s here! July 4 festivities Monday, including a newly-routed 10 a.m. downtown Saugatuck parade and fireworks over Kalamazoo River/Lake when night falls, will launch the summer season into full, vivid color.The new parade route, occasioned by crowd safety…

We all need to spend today and the rest of our lives more wisely. With inflation at a 40-year high, we are all having to spend our hard-earned paychecks with care. Life is the same. We have less life today…

By G.C. StoppelEach week I read publisher Mike Wilcox’s editorial, then go for a walk. Sometimes it is to cool down; other times to think over what he wrote and how it can be applied. The June 9 edition when…

By Scott SullivanEditorRiggedSummer and living’s uneasy. In Baldwin an alligator was rescued by police June 11 after a high-speed car chase.An Oak Park man, 40, fled Lake County deputies till his car got stuck between trees on a rails-to-trails path.…

Saturday’s 20th annual Town Crier runs, which raise funds for Saugatuck High School track and cross-country teams, drew 410 entrants — second only to 2019’s pre-Covid 442 — including (above) Chris Abruzzo, 66, of Souh Haven, who returned to skip…

By Scott SullivanEditorWhither The Root Beer Barrel? The iconic structure, again busy selling affordable foot-long hotdogs, more treats, games, history and its signature cold, frothy beverage on hot summer days, is again up for lease reconsideration.Douglas, which owns the rehabbed…

Sherlynn Anne (Smith) Coupe, 81, of Saugatuck-Douglas died Monday afternoon, June 6, 2022, at the Cove Health Facility.Sherlynn (Sherry) was born on Aug. 19, 1940 in Everett, Wash. She was the eldest of four children born to Stanley and Sonna…

By Scott SullivanEditorWhat It IsI’m convinced there are rational Republicans. At one time I may have been one. When parties poop on me I don’t take it as personal nor fate; it’s an opportunity.Take the Republican National Committee as latest…

(I wrote this a year ago but wanted share it again. Heck I might share this column over and over for years to come. The man meant so much to me)This week I give pause to reflect on my hero,…

       I have been waking up well before dawn this spring, and it is all my wife’s fault.  No, she is not pulling the blankets over to her side on cool mornings, or sprawling across the bed, shoving me closer to the…

Seven local ourtdoor arts installations, including this one in Saugatuck’s Coghlin Park, are part of the Saugatuck Center for the Arts’ 20th anniversary celebration commencing this Friday with a free concert and more fun at the Center. Kelli Jacobsma gets…

By Scott SullivanEditorIs an Independence Day free from threats possible? Saugatuck’s July 4 parade will go on, Mayor Garnet Lewis told city council Thursday, with her leading in lieu of the Saugatuck-Douglas Rotary Club stepping down claiming it could not…

By Scott SullivanEditorDouglas Poet Laureate Jack Ridl looked through chain links at Pride Week festivities — crowds, rainbows, music — like an outcast from life’s feast.John Porzondek, the Saugatuck guy who with-his partner-turned their home’s city-banned awning into a butterfly…

You would almost think it was summer with so much ado — not only Community Pride festivities but the National Trails Day Trail Scramble at eight local sites, including Peterson Preserve (right) here.

    James Barrie, best remembered as the author of Peter Pan, also wrote a short play he called, “The Old Woman Shows Her Medals.”  It is a sad tale of an elderly widow who would periodically go to the local train station,…

I fear for our democracy. My fear is rooted in the fact that most citizens don’t really care about what is happening at their federal, state and local governments. Only fifty percent of us bother to vote, and once the…

Former Columbus (Ohio) Area Arts Council executive director Kathryn Armstrong has been named new development director at Saugatuck’s Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency. She will oversee fundraising and manage patron, sponsor and foundation relationships for the 111-year-old School…

BY SCOTT SULLIVAN EDITOR The Saugatuck Township Planning Commission, wary of history repeating, May 23 declined activists’ urging to establish a Local Historic District at and around the Kalamazoo River mouth by a 2-2 vote. Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance members…

By Scott SullivanEditorIn AirI knew when I saw kids plant a redwood at River Bluff Park in just centuries salamanders would skydive from it. How? From a story in The Smithsonian.Like flying squirrels, Aneides vagrans or wandering salamanders stretch their…

By Scott SullivanEditorCommunity Pride Week is underway celebrating not just the local LGBTQ population but all people with educational and fun gatherings.Community Pride Committee-sponsored events Thursday June 2, include drag bowling at Alley’s Classic American Diner, 229 Center St., Douglas.The…