HAMPSHIRE COUNTY
APRIL 2, 2026 | FREE
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EDITION EASTHAMPTON
School Committee approves levelservices budget for FY27 At its March 24 meeting, the Easthampton School Committee approved the nearly $25 million level-services fiscal year 2027 budget proposed by Superintendent Michelle Balch.
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Easthampton seeks public input to help shape future of downtown
Easthampton is encouraging residents, business owners and visitors to participate in a new community survey that will help shape the future of downtown.
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NORTHAMPTON
Syrup Stampede to aid organization supporting grieving parents The Syrup Stampede 5K race and 2K fun run/ walk returns on Sunday, April 12, to support the work of Empty Arms Bereavement Support.
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Council votes to maintain water, sewer rates By Trent Levakis
tlevakis@thereminder.com
NORTHAMPTON — During its March 19 meeting, the Northampton City Council unanimously approved an order to maintain the same water and sewer rates from the previous year for fiscal year 2027. The amount resident users pay is based on the size of their pipe. Most users in Northampton have a 5/8-inch or 3/4-inch pipe. For users with a 5/8-inch pipe, the water charge will stay at $47.45 for each quarter of the year, while users with a 3/4-inch pipe will see their water base charge stay at $71.25 per quarter. For sewer rates, the quarterly base sewer charge for users with a 5/8-inch pipe and with 3/4-inch pipe will remain at $28.85 and $36.06, respectively. The council elected to maintain these rates as the Northampton Coca-Cola bottling plant continues preparations to exit the city. Back in 2021, the plant in the Northampton industrial park announced that it would cease operations in the city by the summer of 2023 after serving in the city since the 1950s. The plant has since delayed its departure multiple times and most recently indicated they may remain in Northampton through December, according to DPW Director Donna LaScaleia. “Coca-Cola’s announcement in 2021 that they were going to cease operations in the city by the summer of ’23 required that we study alternative ways to replace their revenue. They were the single biggest water and sewer customer in the city, a full 25% of both the water and sewer enterprises, so this announcement was really devastating,” said
With the city’s Coca-Cola plant leaving in the near future, the Northampton City Council elected to keep the same water and sewer rates as the previous year. Photo credit: Northampton Open Media
LaScaleia during the meeting’s public hearing on March 19. This led to the implementation of new base rate fee structures in both water and sewer enterprises, which began on July 1, 2023. Since this change was made, costs have shifted to residents, with the average residential household seeing a $128 annual increase to their water bill and a $115 annual increase to the sewer bill. LaScaleia explained that FY22 was the last year of stable operations at the Coca-Cola plant; by FY23, usage began tapering. When building the budget for FY24, LaScaleia explained that the DPW began anticipating $0 in revenue from Coca-Cola to the budget, per its announcement of departure. The goal has been to shift the lost revenue to base charges in order to remain at a
consistent revenue level. With Coca-Cola’s revenue stream greatly diminished and highly unpredictable, LaScaleia shared that the city has found success in this effort. “We shifted their lost revenue quite successfully ... All we were trying to do is make up for their lost revenue in the best way possible with the least terrible impact to the rest of the city,” LaScaleia said. She added, “As everyone is aware, Coca-Cola’s departure has been delayed, and since 2024, we have received about $2 million in what I’m calling unanticipated revenue. For FY26, we’ve received about $400,000 year to date. The reason I’m using the word unanticipated is because when we build the budget, we have to prove revenue to the
Department of Revenue. So, if Coca-Cola tells us that they are leaving on a certain date, we have to believe them, and if we don’t, then we continue to collect that revenue, but we cannot build a budget based on, well, ‘we don’t really think you’re going to leave.’” Since they began budgeting $0 for Coca-Cola in FY24, the city has retained the revenue through the sewer base charges, according to LaScaleia. With this unanticipated funding, LaScaleia highlighted various projects that have benefited from additional funding. “In January, this council approved several transfers from retained earnings into our capital See RATES on page 3