Awards and Accolades

New Albany is a friendly, welcoming community of roughly 11,000 residents. We are committed to creating amenities that foster a strong sense of community based on our founding pillars of lifelong learning, culture and the arts, health and wellness, and the environment. These pillars are evident in our Village Center, where our community assets include the New Albany-Plain Local Schools campus (ranked among the top 3% of all Ohio school districts), Columbus Metropolitan Library – New Albany branch, Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany, Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts, restaurants and shops, and Rose Run Park, our central park which physically connects all of these assets while adding to the abundance of green space in the core of town. New Albany is also home to one of the largest master-planned commercial office parks in the Midwest.

Please take a moment to browse the categories below to see what the media, professional organizations and more are saying about New Albany!

24/7 Wall St. has selected New Albany as Ohio’s 2020 representative on their annual list of Best Cities to Live in Every State.

Stating that New Albany is one of the fastest growing cities in Ohio, USA Today recently ranked the city 25^th among “America’s 50 Best Cities to Live.” The national publication also notes that the city is “less than 20 minutes from downtown Columbus and in easy commuting distance to jobs in and around the state capital.” Read more from USA Today.

“New Albany is one of the fastest growing cities in Ohio, and the typical New Albany household earns $203,194 a year, more than triple the median income nationwide of $60,293…a dollar also goes further in the city than it does in much of the rest of the country. Goods and services are 13.4% less expensive in New Albany than they are nationwide.” USA Today/24/7 Wall Street

“New Albany has quietly but decisively emerged as a popular place to do business, anchored by the 5,000-acre New Albany International Business Park.” Columbus CEO

“Streets filled with Georgian homes patterned after estates in England’s Cotswolds region are tucked behind lanes lined with stately red maple and honey locust trees bordered by white horse fences.” Ohio Magazine

“The results of our annual search for America’s 50 best suburbs are in, and New Albany, Ohio, has claimed the No. 1 spot.” Business Insider

BarBend.com has ranked New Albany #31 in its 2020 list of Ohio’s Top 50 Cities for Fit Lifestyles. New Albany was the only Central Ohio community to crack the top 50.

New Albany was recently named the safest city in Ohio for 2021 by Safety.com, a leading home security and safety advocacy website. Analysts from the site assessed data provided by the FBI Crime Report, Gun Violence Archive, U.S. Census Bureau, Insurance Journal and America Health Rankings to create its list of safest cities in Ohio. For more information about their methodology, click here.

SafeWise has ranked New Albany #18 among the top 20 safest cities in Ohio for 2020. We also topped the list of Central Ohio cities on that list. You can see the rankings and read the full report by clicking here.

New Albany Dispatch Manager Named Ohio Gold Star Supervisor of the Year

Congratulations to Dispatch Manager Elizabeth Lybarger for being selected as the 2021 Ohio Gold Star Communications Supervisor of the Year by the Ohio Chapter of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials. She was honored at the organization’s annual conference and Gold Star Awards ceremony on Wednesday, April 13, 2022.

City of New Albany Receives GFOA’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award

On September 30, 2021, the City of New Albany was pleased to announce that it had received the Government Finance Officers Association’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award. The award represents a significant achievement by the City. It reflects the commitment of the governing body and staff to meeting the highest principles of governmental budgeting. In order to receive the budget award, the City of New Albany had to satisfy nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation. Click here to learn more.

New Albany Communications & Marketing Wins Six 3CMA Awards

On September 9, 2021, the City of New Albany won six different national communications awards from 3CMA (City-County Communications & Marketing Association), which is the nation’s premier network of local government communicators. This was a highly competitive process as the 3CMA received more than 800 award entries from 238 unique jurisdictions. The city won the following awards: first place for our business park virtual tour/video (Most Innovative Communications category); four second place awards for our brand refresh (Marketing and Tools – Branding category), business park virtual tour/video (Marketing and Tools – Economic Development category), history video about Vietnam War hero Mike Butsko (Video – Education category) and the Explore New Albany series (Video – Regularly Scheduled Programming category); and a third place award for our website (Digital Interactive – Overall Website category).

New Albany Communications & Marketing Wins Two PRSA Awards

On July 22, 2021, the Central Ohio Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) honored the City of New Albany with two awards. The City won a first place PRism Award for our Community Development Virtual Shuttle Tour to help recruit new companies to the New Albany International Business Park. The City also won an Award of Excellence for our Rose Run Park virtual tour. The PRSA PRism Awards are designed to honor exceptional public relations activities from a diverse mix of businesses, industries and backgrounds throughout central Ohio.

Finance Department Receives Highest Award

The Government Finance Officers Association awarded its Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting to the City of New Albany for its 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. This is the highest form of recognition possible in governmental accounting.

“This award reflects our commitment to fiscal reporting and providing a top notch accounting of our operations,” said City Manager Joseph Stefanov. “I’m proud of our entire finance team for this accomplishment.”

New Albany Communications & Marketing Wins PRSA PRism Award

On July 30, 2020, the Central Ohio Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) awarded the City of New Albany a first place PRism Award for our recent rebranding project. The PRSA PRism Awards are designed to honor exceptional public relations activities from a diverse mix of businesses, industries and backgrounds throughout central Ohio. City staff would like to thank our City Council, steering committee, Moorehead Design and Pentella Unlimited for their assistance in developing a successful and award-winning rebranding strategy!