The Fredonia Village Board has voted on a water plan – but nobody in the village should expect that the issue is going away anytime soon.

Village Board members made a difficult choice on Thursday in the face of loud opposition to seek out a deal to buy water from the North County Water District, to decommission the village’s treatment plant and reservoir and share a new water tank with the town of Pomfret. It sounds straightforward, but given the history of water service in Fredonia, we have a feeling this process will be anything but quiet after Thursday’s vote.

Water service has been a controversial topic long before Thursday’s vote filled with raucous Village Board meetings, boil water orders, water rate hikes, lawsuits, more boil water orders and enough editorials and guest essays to fill a book. That doesn’t mean everyone has had their say.

Noises were made during Thursday’s Village Board meeting about a permissive referendum. A couple of petitions being circulated have around 492 signatures as of Thursday. Who knows how many registered village voters will sign a petition to protest the bond needed to decommission the Fredonia water treatment plant and reservoir, but we’d be surprised if there isn’t a vocal attempt to find the more than 1,000 voters needed to force a public vote. As the process moves on, every move the village makes will be debated, words will be parsed and, we’re sure, voices will be raised. Another lawsuit seems possible.

The talk will continue. In our opinion that talk must focus on how to provide reliable water service to the families and businesses who call Fredonia home. We’ve debated long enough. Village residents deserve reliable water service at a price that doesn’t break the bank.