‘We hope all of this is behind us’
After more than a decade of rancor, Narragansett, R.I., has opened its new library
NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — For years, the biggest political fight in this seaside town was about moving the public library. Warring factions accused each other of whipping up angry mobs, or of waging a “vicious and spiteful abuse of power.” A lawsuit was filed. Town council meetings devolved into shouting matches. Elections hung in the balance. Political signs emblazoned with “Save Our Library” and “Love Your Library” were posted around town.
But now those signs are safely tucked away in a storage closet on the second floor of the sparkling new library on the Narragansett Pier, where its January opening bookended a more than decade-long controversy.
“In these celebrations, we’re going to look back at the history, but we’re not giving any oxygen to the people that opposed us,” said Laurie Kelly, the chair of the Maury Loontjens Memorial Library board of trustees. “All up and down the community, people came together to accomplish a library.”
The opening of the new $9 million library marks the end of a divisive chapter in Narragansett. It was a story that touched on everything from tax rates to the character of Narragansett to democracy itself. Now, people in town are ready to turn the page at 25 Pier Marketplace.
“It’s just amazing,” library director Patti Arkwright said on a recent weekday tour of the new library, which features a wave design on the front desk, and seagull-shaped lights. “It’s so bright, so spacious.”
The history of the new library goes back about a decade and a half, when people first started kicking around the idea of replacing the old one. It wasn’t in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and if the lights were on the fritz — and this happened fairly often — you’d have to lift a panel under the floor of the children’s room to go down into an earthen cellar to work on the electric system.
Over the years, the library board and the Town Council settled on the idea of buying a vacant building near the old library and renovating it to open a new, bigger library. The new building, often called the Belmont building, was once a grocery store.
In November 2016, the town put the issue on the ballot, asking voters there if they wanted to borrow $5.8 million for the library project. Twothirds said yes. In 2018, the town closed on the purchase of the building from developer Gilbane.
But after the November 2018 elections, a new Town Council majority took power. Three of the five members pumped the brakes on the library project. In January 2019, they voted to try to sell the building that the town had just bought for the new library.
Opponents said they weren’t against a new library, just against the project as it stood. Some in the community raised concerns about the cost of the project, the size of the library, and the impact on local taxes. Some questioned whether the 2016 vote approving the project was specifically for the Belmont building, or just a library project in general.
But the Belmont building wasn’t the only thing on the chopping block: The council that year also voted to slash the library’s funding by more than half, jeopardizing a state match. The votes against the project and the library’s budget were consistently 3 to 2, and consistently drew boos and jeers from an angry crowd of library supporters.
“You should resign,” one person shouted at a Town Council workshop, according to a Providence Journal report. “Liar, liar,” others said. The town’s Democratic and Republican committees reportedly released a joint statement expressing concern that “democracy has been set aside in our town.”
Supporters of the library project sued to block the sale of the building that the town had just bought. They won an order preventing the building from being sold to a Connecticut developer.
In the end, the solution to the impasse over democracy was more democracy. In 2020, Narragansett residents voted in a strong majority on the Town Council who favored the library. Voters yet again approved a ballot question on the library — this time, unambiguously about the Belmont building. They voted by almost the exact same percentage as in 2016.
People still wanted the new library. And this time, they got it.
“It was just one fiasco after another,” said Councilwoman Susan Cicilline Buonanno, a library supporter and plaintiff in the legal case, who won her seat back in 2020. “But finally, we’ve got a council that supported the project, and we moved forward.”
In total, the project cost was about $9 million, according to Kelly. That broke down to $5.8 million in the town bond; the state Office of Library Information and Services will help pay down $3.14 million of the borrowing costs. Library savings, foundation grants, and private donations held by nonprofit Friends of the Library helped make up the rest. One supporter described the impact on the typical tax bill as one premium cocktail at the Coast Guard House per year.
Construction wrapped up in January.
“A year from now, it’ll be like it was always there,” said Councilwoman Deb Kopech, a project supporter. “It’ll be a nothingburger, mark my words, in like three years.”
A ceremonial ribbon-cutting in January brought out supporters and one-time opponents alike. Narragansett Town Councilwoman Jill Lawler once voted to sell the building. She then lost in 2020 before winning again in 2022.
“It’s time to move on from the years of politics, there is so much to celebrate in Narragansett,” Lawler said in an email. “The Library is built and the Board of Trustees did a great job; the Library is beautiful! I trust the Town will enjoy the Library for years to come.”
For supporters like Kelly and Arkwright, all the drama was worthwhile — just look at how many people are flocking under the seagullshaped lights to get a new library card. The wide rows of books can accommodate people with disabilities, and the meeting rooms can accommodate all sorts of gatherings, like a talk about 18th-century clothing in Narragansett. On a recent weekday, people filed in to check out books, ask questions of reference librarians, or, for the youngest among them, to play with blocks in the spacious children’s room.
That’s what a library is for, Kelly and Arkwright said: Bringing people together to do a lot of different things. Bringing the community together, even after it was divided for years.
“We’re just happy it’s built and people are going to get what they voted for,” Kelly said. “We hope all of this is behind us.”