
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 6, 1995                   TAG: 9506060097
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

TOWN HOPED FOR MORE AT 'RETIRE BLACKSBURG EXPO'

For years now, national publications have touted Blacksburg as a prime retirement spot, a nestled-in-the-Appalachian-Mountains college town with little crime, beautiful scenery and plenty of things to do.

So this year, after much planning, the town decided to go for broke. It scheduled a "Retire Blacksburg Expo," advertised and invited potential retirees to come participate in tours, seminars and social events designed to accentuate the possibilities that the town holds for the older crowd.

Problem is, the town planned for a much bigger party than is probably going to happen.

When the expo kicks off Thursday, running through Sunday, the town expects about 40 of those potential residents to show up. That's the number who have registered and paid their $150 fee. It's less than half the town expected.

Blacksburg Town Manager Ron Secrist admitted disappointment at the number of registrants, especially after the turnout two years ago at the Family Motor Coach Association convention, which drew an estimated 10,000 campers to town and helped prompt the town to schedule this year's expo.

Perhaps the 14-member steering committee that met for a year to plan the event may have set its sights too high, he said. Blacksburg may have done as well as could be expected against the competition of other could-be-retirement-meccas such as Asheville, N.C., which holds a retirement convention of sorts every year.

"There is some disappointment there," Secrist said. "Blacksburg is not on the beaten path."

The town, which spent $10,000 in marketing and printing costs, expects to lose $6,000 to $8,000 on the event, although Secrist characterized the effort as part of an ongoing process of advertising the town - in the same vein as participation in the Tour DuPont or the Blacksburg Electronic Village.

The town targeted Virginia Tech alumni, and contacted local retirees and Tech faculty for help in contacting other retirees around the country. Representatives from at least eight states are expected to show up.

Secrist maintains that the benefits of attracting a certain number of retirees - who bring wealth and education with them, and whose numbers could help the town strike a balance when Tech's students are gone - outweigh disadvantages such as increased pressures on health care facilities and tension associated with the competing lifestyles of the elderly and the college-aged.

by CNB