CUMMING - The chairman of Georgia's state Senate Banking Committee has avoided losing commercial property in Cumming to foreclosure.

State Sen. Jack Murphy, R-Cumming, owns a 1-acre tract that had been advertised for a foreclosure auction at the Forsyth County Courthouse.

Murphy told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the property was not seized, and that he's continuing to try to work things out with the lender.

The loan was originally issued for about $228,000 by Integrity Bank of Alpharetta, which failed in 2008 and where the senator was once a director. Investors later bought the loan.