 
I
am excited and proud to have this opportunity to introduce the unique
city of Three Rivers. Three Rivers is located approximately 20 miles
South of Kalamazoo, and yes, there really are three rivers in Three
Rivers: the Portage and Rocky Rivers both flow into the St. Joseph
River. Three Rivers is surrounded by many lakes. The local economy
is a diversified mix of service, tourism, and industry.
Our City has undergone a historic amount of change in the past six
years. We redeveloped one of our many parks into a classic
petting zoo. The new zoo area has an exhibit barn with exotic
birds, reptiles, and a bobcat native to Michigan. The barn
is surrounded by pastures for a variety of animals with which people
can interact and feed.
The
community passed millages in the recent past to enhance the quality
of life. First, a new school millage allowed us to build a
state of the art and first class high school for the area.
The project came in under budget, and the remaining money was used
to enhance the middle school. Both facilities are great places
for our kids to learn as well as places for the community to utilize.
After
the success of the high school millage, the people passed another
millage to revamp and expand the elementary school buildings, providing
quality K-12 school facilities for the entire Three Rivers area.
Voters
also supported a street and sidewalk millage to improve our town.
City Administration aggressively rebuilt the major streets in the
community and replaced the adjacent sidewalks. Sidewalks surrounding
the schools were also replaced with the millage. The effort
changed the look and feel of our community. Many
other projects are in progress to improve our downtown, expand our
airport, create industrial growth, and build new residential homes
in the City.
Three Rivers has much to offer its citizens, neighbors, and visitors.
Our beautiful downtown historical district, parks, zoo, airport,
cultural entertainment, and educational and employment opportunities
only begin to exemplify the richness and diversity of our City.
We invite you to browse these web pages to learn more about our
City. We also invite you to visit Three Rivers soon in person.
Sincerely,
Joseph A. Bippus
City Manager
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