Letter To The Editor: Narragansett Needs A New Library

Submitted by Albert Alba

When I went to mass on Christmas Eve, Pastor Father Taillon of St. Thomas More and St. Veronica’s Parish gave a homily on the importance of the love of one’s neighbor. He referenced the recently released movie, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. He stated, “It was one of the best movies I have ever seen.”

As many of you know, many neighbors from Narragansett have reached out to the town council
stating their desire for our town to have a new state-of-the-art library. We have heard hours of
testimony from neighbors of all ages – elementary school children, middle school youth, high
school students, young adults, middle-aged adults, and senior-citizens – all presenting their
case for the need for a new state-of-the-art library. Petitions and support for a new library have
been generated from people through all walks of life and from all political parties. The Democratic leaders and Republican leaders have even united to show support for a new library. State Representative Teresa Tanzi pled with town council members Mannix, Lawler, and Lema
to allow the library project to commence.

A building had even been purchased to house the new library with the approval of the former
town council, but three of the current town council members, Mannix, Lawler, and Lema, presented several arguments against having the library project move forward at that location. These included an increase in taxes of approximately $3–$4 per month for homes valued at $400,000.

That tax increase did not take into consideration any fundraising that would be done that would
reduce the new tax to even a lower increase to residents of Narragansett. The Murray Family
Charitable Foundation pledged a $500,000-dollar matching pledge. Terrance Murray is an
extremely intelligent man, and he would not donate money to a cause that was bad for the
community. There have been several other excuses from three of the town council members and
those opposed to building the new library at the proposed location. The location was stated as
bad due to lack of parking – even though it has more than triple the amount of parking spaces
that is available for the existing library. The Common Area Maintenance (CAM) fees were stated
as a concern – even though the town has to pay for maintenance for every other building in
town that it owns. These CAM fees would not be able to go up without justification to the town
council, either as a result of an increase in costs associated with CAM services or if there is
justification to implement additional maintenance services! And yet another argument was that
the people who voted did not know what they were voting for when they cast their vote! It was
also noted only a small percentage of residents voted on the bond referendum.

In a representative democracy, residents vote for elected officials who are supposed to uphold the
will of the majority who voted on an issue. If elected officials can make excuses, such as the
ones above, on why they are not following the will of the people, after an election that was valid
and was not compromised, that can set a dangerous precedent. In addition, if residents do not
vote, their votes cannot be counted or considered after the fact. If any one candidate gets
elected by the majority of those who went out to vote, he or she would win the election even if
only a small percentage of all residents went out to vote.

Would we as a town be able to say the elected candidate is not truly elected and we need to have a re-vote since the majority of residents did not go out and vote? Incidentally, let us not forget council members Patrick Murray and Jesse Pugh offered to have a special election to hear the voice of the silent minority, but the special election for a re-vote was denied by council members: Mannix, Lawler and Lema.

In a last-ditch effort to prevent the recently purchased building from ever being able to be the
home to our new library, the aforementioned council members, Mannix, Lawler and Lema,
actually went behind closed door and orchestrated a scheme to sell two parts of this building.
One part is set to be sold to the current tenant, the liquor store, therefore forfeiting the town
thousands of dollars of rental income per year if the sale is allowed to go through. The second
part was set to be sold to a Connecticut businessman who was planning to open a food court –
which would have been in direct competition with other local businesses.

This would have had the potential to cause some of the local businesses to close, or at least would have had a negative impact on their yearly income. As it is, our restaurants only have a short summer season to support their operations for the year. With tourists deciding to eat at a newly constructed food court, it would no doubt have hurt our local restaurants.

Both sales were not only done behind closed doors but were done without getting a current commercial appraisal or a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA). The aforementioned town council members continued their dubious scheme by not even presenting the property for sale on the open market – where taxpayers may have gotten a better price for the property.

Both sales were determined suspect by a judge who imposed a temporary restraining order on
the sale of the property. Thankfully, the Connecticut businessman eventually backed out of his
willingness to purchase the property. The fate of the liquor store section of the new building will
be determined at a court hearing, to be held on Friday, January 17, 2020.

If all of the previous antics were not enough, council members Mannix, Lawler and Lema came
up with another scheme they were hoping would facilitate a quick sale of the newly purchased
building – in an effort to be very sure the library would never be able to be built in the recently
acquired building. This highly unprecedented scheme, was to have the town hold the mortgage!
The aforementioned council members offered to hold the mortgage for the Connecticut businessman – despite the fact that he had filed for bankruptcy more than once! All of the previously stated actions, if they had been implemented, would prevent the building of a state-of-the-art library at the building that was selected by the Library Board. The Library Board are the agents authorized by the Narragansett Town Charter to determine the needs for a library in our town. Their decision in selecting a location for a new state-of-the-art library spanned across ten years of research and planning.

While a new library will help everyone who uses it, a state-of-the-art library has its greatest
potential to provide services that will help those most in need. A state-of-the-art library will be a
gift that keeps on giving. Some examples of services offered from a state-of-the-art library will
be to provide access to books (for one’s education, research, and personal enrichment), access
to technology (multi-media resources, on-line data bases, computers, the internet), and to serve
as a safe haven for families, the elderly, and a children’s center, as well as serving as a social
center. This social center could be used for a multitude of activities such as movie nights, game
nights, book clubs, and author gatherings, and last but not least it will provide services for the
handicapped. Let us not forget our current library is out of compliance for the handicapped.

I find it ironic three of the town council members failed to uphold the will of 68 percent of the voters who voted on a bond referendum that was to be used to build a new state-of-the-art library, yet they orchestrated to sell the recently purchased building to a Connecticut Businessman with the Town of Narragansett holding the mortgage – without the residents’ consent. This proposed business venture was a no-win situation for the business owners and residents in Narragansett.

If the Connecticut businessman accepted the offer and if his business failed, the long-term
consequences on the taxpayers could have had a deleterious effect on our taxes. In addition, if
this business venture was a success, the negative consequences of the food court on our
neighborhood’s restaurant could have pushed some businesses into bankruptcy.

Regardless, if you are for or against the library one should recognize the three town council members should have never even approached the Connecticut businessman for the food court. Aside from the food court business, it was unprecedented that our town council would offer any business owner the option to hold a mortgage. How many residents would have voted to have our town hold a mortgage for an out-of-state businessman where the business had a potential to hurt our area businesses? How many residents would have voted to have a town commercial building sold without it going on the open market or without a recent assessment to help assure our town
would get the best price for the building?

I ask town council members Mannix, Lawler and Lema what would Mr. Rogers do when
considering the following actions? Would Mr. Rogers elect to retrofit a newly purchased building
that would create a state-of-the-art library that will help those of all ages and all walks of life better themselves all for a nominal increase in our taxes? – Or – Would he vote to forfeit hundreds of thousands of dollars in bond money, Office of Library and Information Services (OLIS) monies, charitable gifts, and matching donations all for one’s own political agenda?

What is best for our neighborhood and our neighbors? It can be a wonderful day in the
neighborhood if we can move forward with this project. Let us hope town council members will
have an epiphany in 2020, and allow the new state-of-the-art library to be built sooner rather
than later. It is sad our residents now have to use their tax dollars to fight for an issue that is at
odds with the 68 percent of the registered voters who voted for a new state-of-the-art library.

In the spirit of community, please consider joining other neighbors at the courthouse on
Jan. 17 to show your support for keeping the newly purchased building that the former
town council voted for us to retrofit to become a state-of-the-art library for our town. The Kent
County Superior Court is at 222 Quaker Lane, Warwick, RI and the case will be heard at
11 a.m.