Water bottling plant must sell or it will close

By Carrie A. Mizell

A water bottling plant that at one time was the largest public employer and taxpayer in Gilchrist County must be sold or it will close its doors in 2011.
Donna Cirolia, government relations director for Coca-Cola North America, said on Friday that the Coca -Cola North America plant located on County Road 340 has been losing ground in the retail bottling industry for some time. Recently a decision was made to sell or close the plant in late spring to early summer of 2011.
According to Trina Coggins, plant manager of the Coca-Cola North America facility in Gilchrist County, the plant is currently running on just one-third the number of employees it once had. At one time, the plant employed 185 employees who worked on three eight-hour shifts around the clock. Currently, the plant runs just one eight-hour shift and closes nights and weekends.
On Friday, Coggins said that the plant uses an estimated 25 percent of its permitted 1.2 million gallons of water daily through its water withdrawal permit issued by the Suwannee River Water Management District.
Not only does the loss of jobs at the water bottling plant drastically affect the community, but the loss in tax revenue could pose a hit to Gilchrist County as well.
According to records obtained from the Gilchrist County Property Appraiser’s Office, the water bottling plant, which opened as Ginnie Springs Water Bottling in 1999, went from paying a $63,990.53 tax bill the year it opened to a tax bill of $378,894.62 in 2010, which does not include the facility’s personal property bill.