Firm hired to help with beach grant application

Looking at the route to Lake Michigan from the top of the dune at Laketown Township Beach, 6710 142nd Ave., in October. Note the green rope on the left to help people pull themselves back up the dune.

Laketown Township has hired a firm to help apply for a state grant to pay for new stairs at the beach.

The board unanimously agreed on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, to hire Prein & Newhof for $9,200 to provide assistance for the submission of a Michigan Department of Natural Resources Passport Grant for beach stairs and dune restoration at Laketown Township Beach, 6710 142^nd Ave.

Prein & Newhof has been working with the township on the beach stairs designs since last year.

“Your proposed improvements … align fairly well with the program’s priorities and would give a fairly good odds of receiving funding,” the company wrote in its proposal. “These funds from the MDNR Passport Grant program are extremely competitive and we cannot guarantee you will be awarded.”

The application deadline is April 1. Award notification is in December.

Criteria emphasize renovations of existing facilities that have outlived their useful life expectancy, according to the state’s website.

Curtis Bergman begins cutting apart the 32-year-old stairs at Laketown Township Beach on Thursday morning, April 17, 2025.

Laketown’s previous beach steps were more than 30 years old, and the township deemed them unsafe for use in March 2025. They have since been removed.

The Laketown Township Parks and Recreation Commission recommended contracting with Lakeshore Concepts for $196,500 to install adjustable aluminum beach stairs with composite tread called EZ Beach Steps in an area called “the bowl.” EZ Beach Steps can be raised or lowered as the dune shifts.

Township board members, who ultimately must approve funding for new steps, were concerned about the cost and recommended in December that the manager apply for grants to fund the stairs and two other phases of the project that include reconstruction of the existing boardwalk and stair system from the parking lot up the dune and the addition of about 90-feet of elevated deck with a platform and possible trellis on the area called “the plateau.”

Signs now warn beach visitors of the difficulty in climbing the dune to get back from the Lake Michigan shore to the parking lot.

Passport grants are up to $150,000. The grant requires at least 25 percent of the cost of the project to be matched by the applicant. The township has money set aside in its proposed 2026-2027 budget for a match.

Money for the grants is derived from the sale of the Recreation Passport for entrance to state parks, including Saugatuck Dunes State Park, recreation areas and boating access sites.