Lincoln County is geared up for furthereconomic development in a struggling economy, reported Chamber ofCommerce Executive Vice President Cliff Brumfield at the LincolnCounty Board of Supervisors meeting Monday.

    Brumfield approached the board seeking approval for a letter ofintent for tax exemptions for the M&M Building Company, amilling and blending operation in the old SMI building in theBrookhaven Industrial Park. The letter of intent seeks a partialexemption from property taxes, according to Brumfield.

    “They’ll still be paying the full school taxes, of course,” hesaid. “The state just offers this exemption to help those that makelarger investments.”

    M&M was hoping to move forward with the process in 2010. Butdue to the slow economy, Brumfield said problems surfaced in thedevelopment of the operation.

    He explained the owners have paid full taxes for 2010 and plan topay in full for 2011 as well. The exemption will take effect in2012 since the company is now fully operation, Brumfield said.

    The board approved the letter of intent. Now, the process for taxexemption can move forward, Brumfield explained, because thecompany now has 14 full-time jobs and a payroll of around$500,000.

    Brumfield seeks city board approval Tuesday because the project wasa joint effort between Brookhaven and Lincoln County. Then theapplication for tax exmption will move on to the state’s Departmentof Revenue for final approval.

    District One Supervisor the Rev. Jerry Wilson asked Brumfield aboutthe development of the Linbrook Business Park, another jointproject between the city and county.

    “There’s nothing earmarked to go in the park yet,” Brumfield said.”We knew going into it that it would take quite a while before westarted to see it fill up. The recession hasn’t helped things. Butnonetheless, we have had some interested parties recently and acouple on the horizon for next year also.”

    The 400-acre business park has been completed for several years,with water, sewer and infrastructure laid out and lots ready forprospects.

    “We said all along it would take some time and that we had to bepatient before we saw activity,” Brumfield continued. “We remain oncourse with marketing and advertisement for the park, and we’reconfident that it will develop in the future.”

    Concerning personal property, Lincoln County resident Louis Howardapproached the board saying his property was wrongfully sold at aland sale. He sought the supervisors’ help in getting it back.

    Chancery Clerk Tillmon Bishop and Tax Assessor/Collector NancyJordan said they were not certain if there was any error, but wouldmake efforts to double check for Howard.

    After learning Howard paid the taxes for 2006-2009, Bishopexplained to Howard that after the first two years after theproperty is bought, a maturity level is reached, and from there itis solely between those who bought the land and the personattempting to redeem.

    “If there’s a problem after that, you go to chancery court tosettle it,” board attorney Bob Allen added. “That’s what peoplehave to do.”

    Howard insisted there had to be some error but could not show anyproof he found any.

    “We want to make it right if there is an error,” Bishop said. “Wewill do it. We don’t slam doors on people. If we have to correctsomething, we will. But if we can’t, we can’t do anything.”

    In other county business, county engineer Ryan Holmes of DunganEngineering gave an update on county road projects.

    He said the countywide road striping project is complete andpending final inspection from state aid before it can be closedout. He also said a countywide general maintenance project wascomplete and waiting for final inspection as well.

    “We visited all the sites and everything looks good,” Holmes said.”We’ve sent a comprehensive list of the projects to State Aid.There’s a lot of inspections to do.”

    The next board of supervisors meeting will be Monday, Dec. 19, inthe county boardroom of the Lincoln County-Brookhaven GovernmentComplex. The meetings are open to the public.