By Scott Harvey
Commerce – The City of Commerce is another step closer to becoming a Certified Retirement Community.
Council this week approved moving forward with the application which, if approved, would expose the City to more advertisement geared toward persons looking to relocate/retire.
Former Councilman John Sands was on the committee that originally began work on the certification.
Referencing a study conducted by the committee, Sands said, "For every retired couple that you bring into your community, it's equal to 3.27 factory jobs."
Additional residents would bring more business to the City, some of whom may wish to be active in their community.
"A lot of these people are also going to be entrepreneurs. They're going to want to not fully retire but maybe start another business," said Sands. "The other thing that you need to think about is they become volunteers."
Sands says these individuals will also be attracted to the types of services nearby, such as Texas A&M University-Commerce, numerous businesses and area lakes.
The City is required to pay $5,000 up front for the application, then an additional $5,000 every five years. If the application is rejected, the City is refunded its money but allowed to resubmit the application at a later date.
There are currently 39 Certified Retirement Communities in Texas. Locally, those cities include Paris, Winnsboro and Mineola. You can learn more on Certified Retirement Communities at www.retireintexas.org.