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Date: 10/17/2023
NORTHAMPTON — After Coca-Cola announced that their bottling plant in Northampton would continue to operate until March 2024, Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra offered more updates on the situation during Oct. 5’s City Council meeting.
Despite extending its stay for another few months, Sciarra said during the council meeting that Coca-Cola has significantly decreased their production and will continue to do so as they continue to spiral toward their official closure.
“Based on our most recent numbers, water is already down almost 38% and sewer is down about 28% comparing September 2022 to this September [20]23 just from Coke,” Sciarra said.
The city billed Coca-Cola $110,00 for sewer services in December 2022. According to Sciarra, the company was only billed $61,615 for those same services last month.
“Since Coca-Cola’s expansion came online in August of 2011. The city of Northampton has not seen demands this low from the plant,” Sciarra said. “The reality is we are nearing the end of the line with Coke.”
To accommodate the significant loss in revenue from the eventual closure of the plant, the city approved quarterly base rate increases for water and the implementation of base rates for sewer charges back in the spring. Both changes went into effect on July 1, when fiscal year 2024 began.
The change in rates meant that the water and sewer revenue increase will cost an additional $244 to $337 a year for the average household in FY24, depending on the size of their pipe.
The restructuring of these rates affects everyone in the city, from residents to businesses, to hospitals, schools and the Coca-Cola plant. According to Sciarra the rate changes are “purely filling the hole that Coke is leaving.”
Despite the rate changes, the fees for water use did not change.
“We found what continues to be the best solution to a terrible situation that we’re in, and one that allows us to provide the best relief to our most vulnerable residents,” Sciarra said of the water and sewer changes.
Sciarra said that the city is currently working with state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa (D-Northampton), state Sen. Jo Comerford (D-Northampton), U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Worcester), the governor’s office and Coca-Cola’s real estate to market the property on 45 Industrial Dr.
According to Sciarra, the city has seen Coca-Cola’s marketing details and DPW Director Donna LaScaleia has already answered detailed questions from their realtor regarding the plant’s technical specifications.
“We are working to insert language about the many advantages of doing business in Northampton and what a great place it is to have a business into the pitch,” Sciarra said, regarding the marketing strategy for the property. “I am not yet aware of any tours that have been taken to date, but now that they are actively moving, the marketing is a really big step.”
During her announcement, Sciarra also said that the state’s Executive Office of Labor Workforce Development and the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board are working with Coca-Cola to help more than 300 employees who will be displaced by the plant’s closure. A job fair was conducted on Oct. 11 by Coca-Cola for 30 employees on their production side.
Back in 2021, the Coca-Cola bottling plant in the Northampton industrial park announced that it would shutter its doors in the summer of 2023 after serving six decades in Northampton. The plant then delayed the closing until December 2023 before deciding to stay through “at least” the first quarter of 2024.
“We have adjusted our timing and now expect a portion of the facility will continue to operate at least through Q1 of 2024,” read a statement from the company spokesperson. “As always, we remain focused on supporting our employees and the Northampton community throughout the closure process and will continue to work closely with the city throughout this transition.”