Narragansett library battle gets heated

May 7, 2019 2:03 am

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — It’s not every day you see a protest about a library.

But that’s what happened Monday on the streets of Narragansett.

“This isn’t a strip club that we’re trying to bring into Narragansett,” said Nancy DeNuccio of the Love Your Library Coalition. “This is a library that was originally built when the town only had about 3200 people, and now we have 16000.”

In 2016 more than two-thirds of voters approved an expansion of the Maury Lootjens library in a new, bigger building.

Now the majority of the town council is trying to change those plans.

“All these people are in support of expanding our library and moving it to a new location,” DeNuccio. “And now town council is talking about selling the building we thought we were going to have a new library in.”

On top of that, the town budget proposal calls for cutting roughly half of the library’s more than $800,000 budget.

It would force the Narragansett library out of state funding and out of the intrastate library system.

Library leaders say they would have to furlough staff and be open fewer days.

That’s why residents showed up to Monday night’s budget hearing — that at times got heated.

“This is not about governing with these people,” said Town Council President Matthew Mannix. “You put out one-liners, and then you attack.”

Town Councilman Richard Lema said the library has a $600,000 surplus that it could use for improvements.

“In the process we bring that building you’re in now up to date,” Lema said.

Library supporters argue those funds had been saved up for the new building and other expenses.

But Mannix said the $600,000 surplus combined with the new $400,000 budget are more than enough to keep the library running, and that the council is moving forward with that plan.