Eight more on tap: Easthampton City Council backs mayor’s push for new liquor licenses

EASTHAMPTON — The City Council is supporting Mayor Salem Derby’s request to bring eight new liquor licenses to the city, aiming to boost economic development with new restaurants.

The request will now be sent to Beacon Hill in the form of a home-rule petition asking the Massachusetts Legislature to accept it. The request was passed unanimously with one abstention by the council at its April 8 meeting, after a public hearing that saw no pushback from residents.

If accepted, it would make the new licenses available to applicants with businesses located in the city, such as restaurants, bars and package stores.

“If we want to invite people to open up restaurants in Easthampton, this is one of the only ways where they can kind of increase their profit margin,” Derby said, noting that he has spoken with restaurant owners that say profit margins for restaurants are small right now.

In the midst of a tough budget season for Easthampton, Derby said he sees this as a way to invite more restaurants and businesses to open in the city to help produce more revenue and economic development.

Derby spoke alongside Assistant to the Mayor Evan LeBeau — who also serves as the clerk of the Licensing Board — and both noted that there has been interest from current and potential new businesses to obtain a liquor license but there are none available right now. They clarified, after a question from City Councilor At-Large Nathan Markee, that there are no current applications on the table but there has been much interest.

“I think [this is] a really prudent step to allow us to be able to open up the door for people that would like to do business here,” Derby said.

LeBeau told the Gazette last month that Easthampton currently has 31 on-premise consumption and nine off-premise consumption liquor licenses. According to the city website, all-alcohol licenses for 2026 cost $1,563 and for 2027, they will cost $1,663 plus application fees.

Derby previously explained to the Gazette that in early 2020, Easthampton gained approval from the state for 14 liquor licenses, with the condition that they all be used in a certain amount of time. That approval came just before the COVID-19 pandemic, shutting down nonessential businesses, and Derby said nearly all of the licenses were lost.

“Now the request has come in from the mayor to go ahead and reestablish eight additional above quota licenses so that the city could enjoy the benefit of that,” said Precinct 1 City Councilor James “JP” Kwiecinski.

Derby said since licenses were approved in the past, he hopes the Legislature will allow them to be revived. He said he has been in communication with state Rep. Homar Gómez, D-Easthampton, to discuss the possibility of the request moving forward.

The one abstention came from Precinct 3 Councilor Thomas Peake, who said he is in favor of securing the licenses, but only abstained to avoid a conflict of interest since he is on the board of a business with a liquor license in the city.

As president of the board for the The Heavy Culture Cooperative, Peake explained that the music venue and bar was able to obtain a license because it was included in part of the property. If that was not the case, the business would not have opened.

“We would have to be somewhere else,” Peake said. “So there’s other organizations out there right now, I assume, who are in a similar situation that their business model doesn’t really make sense unless you have a liquor license involved and right now there are none (liquor licenses) [available].”

The only member of the public to testify was Lindsi Sekula, who previously served as executive assistant to former Mayor Nicole LaChapelle and clerk of the Licensing Board. She spoke in favor of reinstating the licenses, citing her firsthand experience with the city’s high business demand. There is much interest from businesses Sekula said, adding that it took a lot of work from her along with former City Planner Jeff Bagg to previously obtain the licenses before the pandemic.

“As someone who did work in this area, this is really smart move for Easthampton and I appreciate Mayor Derby bringing it forward,” she said.