New Albany on path to becoming certified retirement city

New Albany is on the path to becoming a Certified Retirement City.

Chance McDavid, assistant development division director for the Mississippi Development Authority, was in town a couple of days this past week to learn about the community and provide information on the certification process.

“I think it went excellently,” Community Development Director Billye Jean Stroud said. “He said New Albany is kind of a hot topic now and I could not have been more pleased with the focus group I had.”

MDA has 12 certified retirement cities and aims to keep about that number. The nearest are Tupelo and Oxford.

McDavid said the program was first approved in the 1990s by Gov. Kirk Fordice. It was treated as a tourism program for awhile and saw a period of reduced interest by the state, but is seeing a resurgence.

Becoming certified means the state will help with recruitment and state advertising as well as advice. “We promote to pre-retirees, assist communities in marketing and enhancing to turn visitors into retirees,” he said.

A common misconception is to picture retirees as aged individuals in golf carts.

McDavid said the trend to retire early is growing so they target people age 50 and older. “That’s the fastest growing group in the country,” he said.

McDavid said 10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65 every day.

The benefit of having retirees is that they add to the population base. But they tend to have more disposable income, are often civic-minded, don’t overwhelm anchor institutions such as schools and they draw family and friends as visitors. Family, especially children, often end up moving to be close to parents.

McDavid said people are moving away from cities and mostly heading west or south.

Those areas, and New Albany, can offer good weather, affordable cost of living, excellent health care, political stability, and recreation and entertainment opportunities, he said.

He added that areas such as ours particularly appeal to Mid-Westerners. “They all ask about weather and taxes,” he said.

Although it is difficult to accurately measure retirees, McDavid said they believe retirees have contributed at least $26 million in the state over the previous five years.

McDavid said there is a multi-step process to be certified, although it is not linear and New Albany has already accomplished part of it.

“There are three questions you need to ask,” he said. “Why do you want retirees? Why would they want to come here? How are you going to attract them?”

“You’re on your own timeline,” he said. “It’s when communities are ready…It could be two months or two years.”

After McDavid’s comments, several of those in the group spoke about what New Albany has to offer in terms of history and heritage, healthcare, volunteerism, housing, higher education, financial institutions, community activism, and other qualities.

McDavid expressed being impressed with those offerings. He said people looking for a place to move often do a quick Google search and find out the negatives. He said that’s not a problem for New Albany but he did express some surprise at seeing cars parked in the middle of the street on the double yellow line.

McDavid was here two days with Stroud providing him with plenty of information as well as tours of the area.

“He’ll gather the information we have provided and come back and do an evaluation,” she said, although there is no definite timetable.