Linden eyeing industrial access road

LINDEN — The City of Linden’s designs on industrial development may get a boost soon if the Alabama Department of Transportation comes through on a $1M grant.

Should the grant proposal be approved, the funds would be utilized to provide the city’s industrial park with an access road.

“It looked like in 04, (the Marengo Economic Development Authority) had tried to get this industrial access road,” Brenda Tuck, the current executive director of Marengo EDA, said. “We have a dirt road and that’s just not acceptable today. If you want companies to come in, you’ve got to have an industrial access road into that property. There had been some efforts there to try to do some things and things just did not come together.”

The establishment of a true industrial access road into the Linden park could not only help to attract new businesses, but also provide a boost to the industries already located in Linden.

“It’s a wonderful park and really the only piece of infrastructure that was lacking is the industrial access road. It has the power. It has the sewer. It has the water. It has the natural gas coming right up to the entrance. Basically, at the end of the day, we will have a very complete park where right now it looks more like a country road. It has a great sign there. It has great companies already in there and it just makes it that much more attractive,” Tuck said of the importance of the project. “Obviously, when we bring somebody to town, first impression is everything. They’re going to see a site and go, ‘Yes we can locate here or no we can’t’ right off the bat. I don’t care what I say and do, what presentations we present, at the end of the day, that first impression is huge. Having a nice industrial access road with turns so they know their trucks aren’t going to have a hard time getting in and out is crucial.”