Kinross.biz brings state of the art technology to Chippewa County 

CHIPPEWA COUNTY The Kinross Business Association announced today that it has successfully digitally archived the first Chippewa County Board meeting and that Taxpayers can view the meeting on its website at www.kinross.biz . The County Board meeting archive joins the Kinross Township Board meeting archive as a working tool for citizens to participate and heighten their awareness of what goes on in local government. The quality of the video is dependant on your connection speed. Additionally, we will be working with the County Board to adjust lighting conditions which will improve the video quality in future recordings.  

We have the advantage these days of using technology to overcome communication barriers that exist between local government and the Taxpayers. This advantage comes to use in the form of video streaming. YouTube is one of the newest tools allowing you to view the meetings online at your leisure. 

“This is the very first time this has been tried with the Kinross Board as well as the County Board” said Joe Paczkowski, KBA President “ the KBA wants’ as many citizens as possible to get involved with their local government. Too many taxpayer issues get through the Board with little or no input from the majority of the community. It is time to make a change to how our government functions and to how our elected officials receive input from the community. Technology makes it possible to make your views known.” 

The KBA’s website includes community public forums where discussions are held between taxpayers and some of the Board members. “These discussions are necessary to work out the issues and make your voice heard. We do our best to keep unscrupulous individuals from making threats in the forum but these individuals are quickly identified and weeded out from discussions” said Paczkowski. The video recordings will now help to document what has been said and the actions that have taken place. Often there are discrepancies between the Board minutes and what actually happened. This will not longer be possible. 

The Kinross Business Association was formed by Joe Paczkowski, Dan Mitchell and John Gaines. We now have 27 members and are still growing. “Our goal is to sign up 100% of the businesses in Kinross Township” said Paczkowski. Kinross.biz is quickly becoming the destination website for those looking to visit the area. To date, little has been done to promote Kinross and we mean to change that. We are currently linked to dozens of tourist network sites and we will soon be releasing our promotional video of the Kinross / Kincheloe potential entitled “Come to Kinross – The Heart of it all”. The heart of it all refers to Kinross being at the center of the Eastern Upper Peninsula providing an untapped resource for tourists looking to get away from it all. This is our motto and sums up the mission statement of the KBA. We have over 38 miles of trails for those who seek out uncrowded launching for snowmobile adventures. The area also has miles of Cross Country Skiing trails, RV trails and hiking trails. 

“There is so much potential in this area for growth” said Paczkowski. We must look at all this potential and determine what we need to do to utilize these resources for the community. We need Jobs. Good paying jobs that will allow residents to provide for their family. Too little has been done by local government to develop business potential. We are property rich and yet we ask top dollar for the dozens of building lots we have available for sale that the Township owns. We need to reach out to high tech companies and offer them a deal to move their operations here. We need to do everything we can to make sure our existing businesses have what they need to be successful and keep them in Kinross. 

The future for Kinross and Kincheloe is looking good. High technology is the answer to utilize our often isolated resources. We need to take advantage of technology to not only bring additional services to our citizens but to reach out to the rest of the world and tell them why we are a great place to live, work and play. Kinross Business Association and Kinross.biz are doing just that and will continue to look for additional ways to serve the public.