LINDEN &045; The Marengo County Commission will hold a public meeting to &8220;consider, discuss, vote upon, and take action on the adoption of a resolution to approve the use and grant public funds to loan $7 million to Linden Lumber Company, Ltd. and its affiliates in order to pay down current company debt.&8221;

Federal Land Bank announced the foreclosure of the company including its properties in Linden and Thomasville.

Commissioner Jerry Loftin said, &8220;If we had an industry offering to come to Marengo County that would provide the jobs they do, we would certainly try to help them.&8221;

He said they are considering whether the commission should help &8220;a business that has never asked anything of us in a time of need,&8221; he said.

He said the meeting at 4 p.m. on Aug. 24 in the Commission’s Chambers would give the commission an opportunity to present this idea to the residents of the county.

As listed by the county in the notice of proposed action, the terms of the loan would be for the company to repay the loan in 240 equal installments of principal and interest with the outstanding principal balance of the loan to accrue interest at an annual rate of 5 percent and no more than 6.5 percent.

Commissioner Calvin Martin said the county is in the early stages of this proposal, but would not elaborate on the how the proposal came about.

The public notice states the loan will benefit the public and the company and its affiliates. It reports the county expects the loan to enable the company to retain 425 jobs and the county to retain $13 million of annual payroll having an estimated economic impact on the county of $50 million per year.

Martin said the $13 million of annual payroll listed in the notice is the expected dollar amount of job retention for the county.

He said engineers hired by Linden Lumber Company presented the proposed amount of economic impact to the county.

The foreclosure sale date is set for Sept. 7 in front of the Marengo County Courthouse. The sale notice includes all the buildings, fixtures and other tangible and intangible property. The property is to be sold as is.