BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — A Montreal businessman who owns several large apartment complexes in the village is once again voicing his concerns to the village board.

Brian Wolofsky spoke out to the mayor and trustees at their meeting Monday, July 18 over how the village is billing apartment complexes for municipal water service.

Wolofsky, who is also suing the village over the issue, was among several local landlords who came to protest the water bills at the village board meeting in June as well.

The water bills are calculated using an “equivalent dwelling unit” or EDU billing system developed by the Development Authority of the North Country in 2018.

Owners of apartment buildings in the village have issues with the law because under the system commercial apartment buildings are billed for fixed water and sewer costs at one EDU per apartment, the same as an entire single family house using 120 gallons of water a day, even if the apartment is a single occupancy studio apartment. In Wolofsky’s case, who owns Meadow East and Swan Landing apartment complexes, and in the case of other landlords, this system means water bills that are tens of thousands dollars more than they feel is fair for the actual usage that is happening.

At the meeting July 18, Village Administrator Greg Thompson said the village had received a proposal from DANC for an EDU review for the board to review and approve to get the ball rolling on the review process. Thompson said the whole review is expected to take a couple of months to complete.

“And if we are going to make changes we’d like to have them made in time for the next budget year,” Thompson said.

Wolofsky addressed the board during the public hearing portion of the meeting.

“I think you guys finally understand it's not just me sweating bullets over these EDUs,” he said. “But everyone has been ridiculously negatively affected.”

“I have done a lot of number crunching since the last meeting,” Wolofsky said. He said if the village was to fairly allocate the EDUs for apartment buildings, compare water usage at apartment buildings and at the two colleges and at Canton-Potsdam Hospital, and then allocate fair EDUs to the two schools and hospital, the village wouldn’t lose any water bill revenue.

The apartment complex owner said the water bill levy at Meadow East is preventing him from reinvesting in the property.

He said once the EDU system was implemented his water bills went from 4 to 8 percent “overnight.”

He said his last water bill was $60,000. “Can’t be done. The money isn’t there,” Wolofsky said.

Wolofsky said the combined cost between taxes and the water bill for the property that he pays the village was “insanity.”

“Even if you resolve the problem of the EDUs, charge SUNY, Clarkson and CPH what they should be charged which I assure you is several hundred more EDUs than now, and charge us (landlords) what we should be charged which is take our total consumption and divide by 120 gallons per day, POOF. That’s exactly what all apartments should be charged, and nobody will bitch,” Wolofsky said.

The apartment complex owner said he had a proposal for how the village could handle the billing based on the numbers he researched. The trustees requested he email his idea to each of them to look at, which Wolofsky agreed to do.