NEW WATERFORD — Village Mayor Shane Patrone spent nearly an hour addressing concerns from residents about the potential industrial park project during the regular council meeting this month.

Patrone said most concerns were fueled by what was found to be misinformation spread on social media about the proposed project.

The village is pursuing annexation of 8.238 acres of land from Unity Township that is situated on Hatcher Road.

The village already owns the property and is seeking to annex in order to potentially use the land as an industrial park.

Columbiana County Commissioners approved the annexation petition last month.

“There was a lot of misinformation on Facebook that had them believing there were a lot of things going to happen that were not true,” Patrone said of the roughly 25 people who turned out to share their concerns with council.

Patrone said concerns were mostly with regard to tax abatements, rumors of large factories and even garbage dump sites on the property.

“I explained none of that was happening. All that has been done so far is the village owned property was annexed into the village limits. This way it will fall under village ordinances and resolutions and will be zoned by the village. This action provides guidelines for what the property can be used for, if and when the property ever gets developed,” he said.

He added that he also explained to residents that the village is looking at a light industrial park but that no decisions have been made and council will still need to zone the property prior to anything being developed.

In other matters during the meeting council passed a resolution approving the county hazard mitigation plan.