Jun. 17--SACKETS HARBOR -- Several of the village's bed-and-breakfast owners are upset over a coming increase in their sewer bills, after an internal audit revealed the business owners were among about a half-dozen village sewer customers being regularly undercharged for their service.

According to village law, bed-and-breakfast owners should be charged for 1.5 equivalent dwelling units, or EDUs, not one, as most of the businesses have been in recent years. An EDU is the minimum charge for sewer service that applies to single-family residences.

The change means the minimum charge for most B&Bs will rise from $115 to $172.50 each quarter. The increase is included in water and sewer bills for March through May that were mailed late last week.

Village Clerk Gertrude M. Karris said she was looking into whether owners of vacant lots in the village were being charged properly for sewer access, when the research "rolled into a general audit." That turned up an old law requiring B&Bs to be charged 1.5 EDUs for sewer service.

"Some were paying 1.5 all along, and some were not," Ms. Karris said. "It was a matter of making it fair across the board."

She said the village has not planned any attempt to recover back payments owed under the law. She sent a letter in March notifying affected customers to expect the increase in future bills.

Vincent Rose, partner with Susan Roach in Woolsey Manor Bed and Breakfast, 206 E. Main St., spoke against the law and the new effort to enforce it at the village Board of Trustees meeting last week.

"B&Bs traditionally in the state of New York are treated as home businesses, not as hotels or motels. As long as you have nine people or less, you fall into this category. ... It's a matter of fairness," he said.

Mr. Rose argued that real fairness requires that all home-based businesses in the village be charged for the same number of EDUs, suggesting the village should either repeal the 1.5 EDU charge requirement for bed-and-breakfasts or mandate that charge for all businesses that double as the owners' primary residence.

The increases will apply to the Jacob Brewster House Bed and Breakfast, 107 S. Broad St., Sackets Harbor B&B, 411 W. Main St., and Woolsey Manor.

Alice A. Holman, owner of the Candlelight Bed and Breakfast, 501 W. Washington St., said she's been paying the higher B&B rate all along. EDU charges have increased over the years, but Ms. Holman said that according to her math she's paid about $2,000 more on her sewage bills than the village's other B&B proprietors during the past 12 years.

"Overall, I'd like to see them take away this $57.50 and not punish B&Bs for being in business," she said.

The EDU charge for sewage service will increase from $115 to $125 per quarter in September.

After listening to Mr. Rose's comments at the village board meeting, Mayor F. Eric Constance said he'd like to see documentation supporting the claim that B&B owners should not bear a greater burden for the cost of running the municipal sewer system than single-family households. That might include usage records for bed-and-breakfasts as well as for single-EDU residential users and other home businesses.

"We need something to compare that to, to say that's an injustice and we need to fix it," he said.

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