LINDEN &8212; As part of the next phase of the GROW Linden effort, there will be a town meeting at 7 p.m. tonight at Linden Elementary School cafeteria.

Councilman Mitzi Gates has been working with the effort since the Linden City Council and Industrial Development Board were awarded a $20,000 grant from the University of West Alabama&8217;s Small Business Development Center and Regional Center for Community Economic Development.

In May, the grant proposal titled GROW Linden, an acronym for goals, research, outreach and work, started to come to fruition when Mary Randolph, executive director of the Wyoming Rural Development Council, and a team of economic and community development leaders from the University of West Alabama led by Ken Tucker and Ken Walker conducted listening sessions with citizens from several community sectors.

This meeting in a culmination of all the input from the citizens responses from approximately 100 Linden citizens from the business/industry/retail, agriculture, economic and community development, healthcare and social services, real estate, banking, education, elected officials, churches, civic organizations, city government, senior citizens, high school and college students and parks and recreation community sectors.

Mary Randolph and the UWA Resource team are scheduled to make a report on their findings at the meeting.

Gates said the members of the newly appointed youth advisory board are also planning to be a part of the meeting. The board is made up of 12 students from the 10th, 11th and 12th grades at Linden High School and Marengo Academy.