Lansford Borough Council is officially reversing its decision to charge business owners a sewer transmission fee.

Homeowners in the borough will still be responsible for paying the fee.Council agreed last week to stop charging businesses for the sewer transmission fee.This year was the first time that businesses were charged, and some complained it was being applied unequally.The borough has an ordinance requiring every residence, business and industrial property in the borough to pay the sewage transmission fee.The money is intended for sewer line repairs and debt service on a loan of more than $1 million taken out for sewer repairs about a decade ago.At last week's meeting, Councilman Matt Walsh said that the issue was discussed at a recent committee meeting and a majority of members favored going back to just charging residences."It was basically agreed upon that the simplest way to fix this is to go back to how the ordinance previously was last year, without the commercial clause in it," Walsh said.After the borough started charging businesses in 2016, two residents who operate businesses from their home came to complain about being billed twice for the same service. Walsh has a personal stake in the problem, being the owner of a business located inside the Panther Mini Mall. He said each business in the building is assessed a fee."I would like to do whatever I have to do right now this evening to ensure that next year we go back to how the previous ordinance was written at the very least. That seems to be the easiest way. I think we're at opening our town to liability lawsuits. I'm in a business with no running water and I'm being charged a sewer transmission fee," he said.