The decision to spend almost a million dollars on a new village reservoir holds water says trustee Stuart Taugher.

Taugher, the chairman of the water board made a motion to move ahead with the plan to build a 1.3 million gallon reservoir - almost 10 times the capacity of current structure. It would be located near the old Spring Street reservoir on the former Bruce Rathbun property off Glen Avenue. The properyt is now owned by Jane Forbes Clark.

"It's a situation we've been playing with for a long time," Taugher said, adding that recommendations to replace the current reservoir date back on the village's former enginneering firm Stearns and Wheler in the 1960s.

The village will enter into a 25-year lease agreement with Clark for the use of the property. According to Taugher, the village will pay Clark $300 a month for the use of the property and also exempt the portion of the property it uses from property tax. Over the life of the lease, the village will pay $90,000 for use of the property.

One other stipulation is that the reservoir be painted green.

Taugher and Mayor Carol Waller both commented that the village had exhausted all other possibilities in its search for a site.

"Everything seemed to fit," Taugher said of the Clark property.

Trustee Glenn Hubbell said that last year, when he was on the water board, "it seemed like the best spot."

The Spring Street reservoir was tested this summer and Taugher said the water board believes it is loosing as much as 40,000 gallons a day and that it may be a contributing factor in some low pressure problems experienced recently in the Bowerstown area.

The additional capacity and elimination of the loss to leaks should allow the water department to cut back on the amount of water it pumps each day.

"This is a very wise move on our part," Taugher said.