INSIDE
: Marathon swimmer's arrival will add to Maritime
REFLECTIONS OF OUR COMMUNITY
Volume 4, Issue 11 August 7, 2026
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Readers! THANK YOU Pentwater's 2026 Citizen of the Hello Thank you so much for the incredible response we have received as we preto our most Year Steve Bass cites Michigan pare to change over to our new delivery recent donors model next month. We have had almost 1,500 people sign up, and hundreds have as the antidote to his life in LA donated. We are so grateful for your kind READER: By AnnaMae Bush
words and generosity! We have received several questions that we would like to address to help our readers understand this change better and all it entails.
The Oceana Echo Community Correspondent
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The Pentwater Service Club selected Steve Bass as Citizen of the Year. This is the 53rd year the Service Club has awarded the community’s highest civic recognition. In that role Bass will serve as grand marshal in the Homecoming Parade on August 15, and a dinner will be held in his honor at the Yacht Club this October. Though he was not born or raised in Pentwater, Bass first came to Pentwater in 2007 at the invitation of a Pentwater resident. He felt an immediate bond with the village. “I grew up in Irvine, California, in a planned community that was inspired by the same values that are important to the Pentwater community. The difference was that those values were not artificially imposed or structured in Pentwater. I arrived here and thought, ‘This is an authentic community – the real deal,' and I wanted to be a part of it. I bought a home here in 2013 and have had no regrets.”
Is the newspaper still free starting in September? YES! Our newspaper will still be mailed for free to anyone who signs up to receive it in our free delivery zone: Pentwater, Walkerville, Hart, Mears, Hesperia, Shelby, New Era, Rothbury, Montague and now Whitehall! If you live outside of this area, you can purchase a subscription for $6.25 per month. We have rates for international subscribers as well.
Steve Bass Bass has a second home in Los Angeles, where he works as a set designer in Hollywood. He graduated with a degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkley, but preferred design work for theater. After working at Disney for a few years, he and a colleague formed their own design consultation company in 1998. This has enabled him to work for a variety of television shows, live theater, award programs, and commercial and residential building programs. His work entails extensive international travel as well, underscored by the fact that he conducted the interview for this article while he was in Finland. His immensely broad design experience and his love for Pentwater formed a solid basis for his multiple contributions that have so enriched this community, many done out of the spotlight and unknown to residents. Bass was involved with the gazebo entrances at the north and south entrances of town, the new village hall, a new website for the Pentwater Arts Council and the Hancock Street beautification design. Better known are the large-scale projects he shaped, such as Park Place, the rebuilt Yacht Club and the museum expansion. He is also
working with the Oceana Community Foundation on their refurbished future home in Hart. His impact is both current and long-lasting. Did he have a favorite project? “Oh, that’s hard to say,” he confesses. “There was something special about each of them. One aspect I can appreciate about projects here is that they last longer than one night or a day, which cannot be said about many of my set design projects. It takes extensive energy to create the setting for a scene or an awards program, and then it all needs to be disassembled. It is very satisfying to me right now to be working on the museum interior design for displays and activities. I want to see the museum be used as much as Park Place, to be a real community hub for all age groups, a place where people don’t just look – but ‘do.’” Was there a particular challenge? “Getting all parties focused on one vision.” Bass is grateful for the balance he has found in his life by spending May through November in Pentwater and November through May in Los Angeles. Michigan life is his antidote for the intensity and traffic of his life in LA. He even calls his home here “Hollyhaven.”
If I get the paper now, will I still continue to get it? ONLY if you sign up. We offer a convenient online form that can be reached by scanning the QR code at the top of this page or you can call our office at 231-301-8149 and sign up over the phone. Beginning Sept. 4, we will no longer mail to full delivery routes, and each newspaper will now have your address printed on it after sign-up. Can I get the paper if I have a P.O. Box or at my place of business? YES! We have not been able to include these in the past, but we will now, so please sign up to receive the paper this way. What if I am a snowbird? Please let us know that when you are signing up, and we can adjust your delivery to only the months you request, or if you have your mail forwarded, it will now include the paper, as it will have your address printed on it. Is it too late to sign up to keep getting the Echo/Mirror? NO! It is NEVER too late to sign up to keep receiving our newspaper in your mailbox.
Robert Haase Joseph White Fred DeGraaf Timothy Brinks Tim Elrod Aubrey Czapek Richard & Mary Sue Carnes Stan Mast Margaret Knapp Ken & Jane Prince Joyce Weber Richard Amstutz Kenneth Klop Julia Hoyer Glenn Beavis Donald & Marilyn Walsworth Gabe Lajko Jeannine Holle Mark Tozer Art Willick Richard & Susan Fisher Constance Campagna Ryan & Julia Whaley John & Barbara Lloyd Peg Gramas Mary Lou Hannigan Phyllis WIlliams Mel Boynton Carol Brown Sally Veurink Sarah Bentley Jan Neustifter Edward Oleary Wilburn & Joanne Cook Doris Graham Joseph & Margaret Clune Clair & Mary Sloan Irene Baker Dennis & Kim Foley Brian & Melody Sukup Larry & Sandy Beckman
Oceana voters approve all ballot proposals in August 4 Primary Oceana County saw a 29.81% voter turnout in this past Tuesday's Primary, which equates to 6,818 registered voters who cast their ballot at the polls. The county's Canvass Board was scheduled to meet at 9 .m. Thursday, Aug. 6 at the courthouse in Hart to certify the election results. In local elections, there was only one contested race, which was for Shelby Township Trustee, and Scott Beishuizen received 238 votes, defeated Matt Koppel who received 133. Additionally, every proposal on Oceana County ballots was approved by voters: • The Mason-Oceana 911 Operating Millage passed 4,541 to 1,836. • The Oceana County Emergency Ambulance Operating Millage passed 4,613 to 1,759. • The Renewal and Restoration and Proposition for Renewal of Separate Tax Limitations passed 3,834 to 2,338.
• The Benona Township Road Millage passed 352 to 210, and the Shelby Area District Library Millage Proposal passed 366 to 192. • The Grant Township Millage for Road Construction and Maintenance passed 296 to 232. • The Hart Township 7-Year Cemetery Millage passed 250 to 202. • The Shelby Township Millage Renewal Proposition for Shelby Township Road Maintenance and Improvement passed 447 to 274, and the Township Cemeteries and Public Parks Improvement and Maintenance Purposes passed 450 to 271. • The Walkerville Public Schools Operating Millage Proposal passed 105 to 89. • The Hesperia Community Library Millage Proposal passed 469 to 305. • The Pentwater District Library Millage Proposal passed 642 to 388. Michigan's General Election is set for Tuesday, Nov. 3.