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Date: 3/21/2023
NORTHAMPTON — Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra unveiled an ambitious five-year, $116 million Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for fiscal years 2024-2028 during the City Council meeting on March 16.
The goal of this program is to map out the next five years of capital improvement projects and what routes the city can take for funding.
The CIP is reviewed and updated each year by the mayor in consultation with the city’s finance director, who in this case is Charlene Nardi. In each of these years, the mayor asks department heads to list their project priorities in order of importance. The mayor’s office and finance director then rank the requests from these departments and determines which ones should be addressed throughout the five years.
According to Sciarra, a capital improvement is a physical public improvement involving a facility, parcel of land or piece of major equipment with an estimated useful life of five or more years. These projects or items must also cost more than $10,000 and can be funded through available cash or borrowing.
The goal of this plan, according to Sciarra, was to push the city further into the threshold of carbon neutrality by focusing on environmentally conscious replacements and improvements, which is reflected in many of the capital improvement items, like public schools and vehicle replacements.
The schools
“For Northampton Public Schools, this five-year plan includes over $16 million in capital projects to be able to maintain our Northampton public school buildings, move them to carbon neutrality, as they are our largest source for fossil fuel use,” said Sciarra.
The Central Services Department is responsible for maintenance in all city buildings and schools. Major projects under public schools over the next five years include Energy Recovery Ventilation construction at Jackson Street School and Leeds for better air quality in the 1950s wings.
“This is our greatest opportunity to lower greenhouse gas emissions,” Sciarra said. “Those 50s wings tend to be solid building envelopes that are very much worth preserving but need a bit of insulation.”
Appearing for the second year in a row is the 21st-century Classroom Technology project, which aims to help modernize classroom equipment and offer more interactive learning opportunities. The project is largely funded by the $500,00 gift from Smith College back in December 2021. The money can be used at the mayor’s discretion.
Other school projects, like roof replacement at the JFK Middle School for FY26 and FY27 totaling $3.5 million and the replacement of the gym roof at Bridge Street are also on top for the next five years.
“We’ve also continued to double the traffic calming and sidewalk budgets from previous years to $50,000, and we are continuing to invest in road repair and maintenance,” Sciarra added.
Major changes to vehicles
Sciarra highlighted how she is making a commitment to making sure all vehicles moving forward are directed toward reducing the city’s carbon footprint.
“I made a commitment that when an energy-efficient or fossil fuel-free option is available [for vehicles], we will purchase that,” said Sciarra, who added that these vehicles often come at a higher cost.
With supply chain holdups and material increases, Sciarra said it was difficult acquiring new vehicles within the commonwealth. Many places in the state could only supply gas-powered vehicles, so the city went out of state to find hybrid and electric vehicles.
“We are continuing to explore all grant options and assistance for greening of fleets, and are trying to keep to that commitment,” Sciarra said.
The Police Department, for example, is on the cusp of receiving five hybrid cruisers this year at a total cost of $366,000. These cruisers will replace the five current cruisers that are most prone to failing.
According to Sciarra, these five vehicles are crucial to the police department’s primary fleet since maintenance costs and mileage for the current vehicles have skyrocketed. The city used to replace three police cruisers a year to keep the fleet running, but in FY21 and FY22, those replacements were completely cut from the budget – which means more vehicles are now in need of replacement.
After this year, Sciarra said the city will be back on schedule starting in FY25, where only three cruisers will be replaced each fiscal year.
With vehicle ordering continuing to be a challenge because of supply chain issues, Sciarra said it is taking about a year from ordering to actually receiving the vehicles.
“We’re recovering from those few years where we didn’t have a vehicle budget,” said Police Chief Jody Kasper. “We’re excited to see our fleet slowly transitioning to hopefully be a fully hybrid fleet over time.”
The continual transition to hybrid and electric vehicles is part of the city’s broader goal of reaching carbon neutrality in government operations by 2030. The city is continuing an ongoing net zero planning study of every government building and school.
Other notable projects
The Fire Department is also on tap to receive multiple vehicle replacements within the next five years, including a fire engine replacement in FY25 costing $1,000,000.
Additionally, there is a $10 million allocation in FY28 for the renovation/removal of the Florence fire station.
According to Fire Chief Jon Davine, the Florence station was built in 1972 and currently lacks separate bathrooms, separate living quarters or separate showers.
“We’re looking down the road to hopefully make some changes to that station so,” Davine said.
Other major allocations include $7.5 million for street resurfacing over the next five years, as well as close to $27 million for improvements to the wastewater treatment plant and pump station.
Readers interested in learning more about the CIP can visit the link, which contains all 435 pages: https://www.northamptonma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/21570/Capital-Improvement-Program-FY2024-FY2028-PDF.
COLA increase
The City Council also approved an increase to the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) for retirees from 3 percent to 5 percent to supplement a time of high inflation.
“The local option is for a one-time increase to the gross retirement allowance of Northampton retirees and survivors from 3 to 5 percent capped at the base of $13,000, and it’s retroactive to July 1, 2022” said Finance Director Charlene Nardi. “To qualify for any cost of this living adjustment…the employee must have retired prior to July 1, 2021.”
According to Nardi, the average annual increase a qualified employee would receive is an additional $217 a year, and there are 444 retirees who qualify for this increase. Out of those 444 retirees, 24 percent of them receive less than the $13,000 COLA base in Northampton.
Northampton’s COLA was situated at 3 percent for the last 20 years.