On Tuesday night the North Smithfield Town Council voted unanimously to oppose Invenergy‘s $700 million fracked gas and diesel oil burning power plant, and on Wednesday evening a second unanimous vote opposing the power plant happened in Lincoln. When Middletown votes to oppose the plant next week, as is expected, that will bring the total number of municipalities passing resolutions in opposition to the power plant to four, since Glocester passed a resolution last week. Many other cities and towns are considering similar resolutions as per the Town of Burrillville‘s request, with Cranston‘s town council discussing it at their next meeting.

Denise Potvin and Suzanne Dumas of Burrillville, Rhoda-Ann Northrup of Cranston and Lorraine Savard of Central Falls all spoke out against the plant in Lincoln. Only Savard spoke out against the plant in North Smithfield.

Over 60 local environmental groups have come out against the power plant, the Burrillville Zoning and Planning Boards have expressed their opposition, and both Pascoag and Harrisville have chosen to not sell Invenergy the water they need to cool their turbines.

Below see video from the Town of Lincoln’s meeting last night and from North Smithfield’s meeting Tuesday night.

Think of it as the “Deepwater Wind” of health care: Innovation, starting in Rhode Island, that could be a model for the world. That’s how revolutionary the concept of the Neighborhood Health Station could be, and the first one is being rolled out in Central Falls.

Perhaps overshadowed by a visit from actress Viola Davis, the groundbreaking for the new Neighborhood Health Station in Central Falls heralds the beginning of a new paradigm in health care, one meant to serve the needs of the community, not the convenience of the provider. The Blackstone Valley Community Health Care (BVCHC) Neighborhood Health Station will be located at 1000 Broad St in Central Falls, and will offer primary care, walk-in primary care, dental care, a pharmacy, physical therapy, pediatric care, occupational therapy, mental health services, Ob/Gyn services, radiology and more; serving over 14,000 patients and 50,000 visits a year.

Upon completion in 2018, the city of Central Falls will benefit from having “comprehensive services offered under one roof, where clinical professionals can collaborate face-to-face for improved care coordination” and “same-day sick appointments with convenient hours (8 am to 8 pm) on week days and additional weekend hours, enabling individuals and families to access health and medical services close to home, when it is most convenient for them.”

BVCHC hopes to cover 90 percent of Central Falls residents. “Using medical records to identify at-risk patients, we will continue to collaborate using community resources and with the new health building, we are confident that we can improve public outcomes,” said BVCHC Senior Clinical and Population Health Officer Michael Fine, M.D., who now also serves as Health Policy Advisor to the City of Central Falls.

Based on public meetings with residents, three public health priorities were identified: the community wanted their kids to be safe in school, they needed access to a gymnasium and they wanted better access to primary care.

• Based on this input, the team designing the center identified five short term goals. Pregnancy prevention: BVCHC partnered with the school system and Brown University’s Residency Program in Family Medicine to create a school-based health clinic at Central Falls High School to bring prevention and same-day clinical care to the adolescents of Central Falls and to reduce the rate of adolescent pregnancy through education and prevention programs. (Central Falls’ high school pregnancy is 4X the state average).
• Multidisciplinary management of individual cases: participants in this collaboration come from all facets of the community, including doctors, dentists, substance abuse, mental health, home care, housing, legal, needle exchange, immigration, transportation, social service, insurers and hospitals. Together, they meet bi-weekly to create customized plans to organize care for the people in Central Falls who are at the highest medical and social risk.
• Mitigation of EMS use: people who use the Central Falls EMS more than four times a year have been identified, outreach has been made and they have been introduced to BVCHC where they can get help with medical, mental health and substance abuse issues and where referrals can be made for housing that they might need.
• Access to exercise opportunities: The mayor now leads city walks to get people moving every two weeks (organized by Parks and Rec, publicized by BVCHC and housing authority and staffed by both parks and rec and BVCHC). A regular schedule of free busing from Central Falls (three pickup sites at Notre Dame and the housing authority) to the Pawtucket YMCA and to the Lincoln YMCA (for access to swimming pools) was introduced.
• Identification of needs within public housing: the city’s community health worker in public housing now brings individual situations and stories to the multi-disciplinary team about tenants, primarily the elderly who are most at risk, to the team to find solutions to their needs.

Innovation is desperately needed in health care. When we as a nation inevitably pass some form of “Medicare for All” single payer health care system it will be vitally important to keep costs down and people healthy. Neighborhood Health Stations point the way.

“None of us,” said Dr. Michael Fine, former head of the Rhode Island Department of Health, “have ever lived in a place where it doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, black or white, whether you speak English or Spanish or another language, whether you walk, take the bus or drive a car, where it doesn’t matter if you have papers or not, whether you can read or not, whether you walk on two feet, or walk with assistance… we’ve never seen a place in which everyone matters, in which we look out for everyone. Whether they came to the health center this year or not, whether they do what doctors recommend or not, whether they choose to live differently or not, we stand here today with a different vision: A vision of a place in which everyone matters. It’s a vision of what Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. called ‘a beloved community.’”

Below, watch Dr. Fine, former head of the RI Department of Health, explain the importance of Neighborhood Health Stations.

“We will welcome the Syrian families to make homes and new lives in our cities,” reads the letter, a copy of which was sent to RI Future from Diossa.

“Indeed, we are writing to say that we stand ready to work with your Administration to do much more and to urge you to increase still further the number of Syrian refugees the United States will accept for resettlement,” it reads. “The surge of humanity fleeing war and famine is the largest refugee crisis since World War II. The United States is in a position to lead a global narrative of inclusion and support. This is a challenge we can meet, and the undersigned mayors stand ready to help you meet it.”

There are at least 4 million Syrian refugees fleeing civil war and the oppressive ruling regime, and many million more fleeing similar strife in other Middle Eastern and African nations. The exodus has been called the greatest refuge crisis since World War II and the sheer volume of refugees has overwhelmed Europe. The United States, which has accepted only 1,500 Syrian refugees in four years of civil war, has been criticized for not doing more.

Diossa joins the mayors of Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Hartford, Conn., Santa Fe, NM, Syracuse, NY, Clarkston Georgia, Paterson, NJ and others in signing the letter. No other Rhode Island mayors signed the letter.

Central Falls has several connections to Syria already. In the early part of the 20th century, many of the Syrian refugees fleeing the Turks settled in Central Falls, according to this official history of migration into Rhode Island. There’s even a Catholic church in Central Falls that was founded by Syrian immigrants in 1907, according to this article in the Rhode Island Catholic. And former CF Mayor Tom Lazieh is of Syrian decent, according to this 2013 Providence Journal article.

Tara Granahan, of WPRO, tweeted about the letter earlier today.

This is the letter in its entirety, as well as the signers:

Dear President Obama:

We commend your decision to open America’s doors to at least 10,000 Syrian refugees displaced by civil war, and applaud your commitment to increase the overall number of refugees the U.S. will resettle over the course of the next two years. This announcement is a vital initial step to honoring America’s commitment to support those fleeing oppression.

As the mayors of cities across the country, we see first-hand the myriad ways in which immigrants and refugees make our communities stronger economically, socially and culturally. We will welcome the Syrian families to make homes and new lives in our cities. Indeed, we are writing to say that we stand ready to work with your Administration to do much more and to urge you to increase still further the number of Syrian refugees the United States will accept for resettlement. The surge of humanity fleeing war and famine is the largest refugee crisis since World War II. The United States is in a position to lead a global narrative of inclusion and support. This is a challenge we can meet, and the undersigned mayors stand ready to help you meet it.

Our cities have been transformed by the skills and the spirit of those who come to us from around the world. The drive and enterprise of immigrants and refugees have helped build our economies, enliven our arts and culture, and enrich our neighborhoods.

We have taken in refugees, and will help make room for thousands more. This is because the United States has developed a robust screening and background check that assures us that we know who we are welcoming into this country. With national security systems in place, we stand ready to support the Administration in increasing the numbers of refugees we can accept.

With Pope Francis’ visit, we are mindful of his call for greater compassion in the face of this ongoing crisis and stand with you in supporting those “journeying towards the hope of life.”

Sincerely,

Ed Pawlowski, Mayor of Allentown, PA

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Mayor of Baltimore, MD

Martin J. Walsh, Mayor of Boston, MA

James Diossa, Mayor of Central Falls, RI

Mark Kleinschmidt, Mayor of Chapel Hill, NC

Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago, IL

Edward Terry, Mayor of Clarkston, GA

Nan Whaley, Mayor of Dayton, OH

Domenick Stampone, Mayor of Haledon, NJ

Pedro E. Segarra, Mayor of Hartford, CT

Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles, CA

Betsy Hodges, Mayor of Minneapolis, MN

Bill de Blasio, Mayor of New York City, NY

Jose Torres, Mayor of Paterson, NJ

William Peduto, Mayor of Pittsburgh, PA

Javier Gonzales, Mayor of Santa Fe, NM

Francis G. Slay, Mayor of St. Louis, MO

Stephanie A. Miner, Mayor of Syracuse, NY

But few residents really care what he thinks these days. The same is true for former Mayor Lazieh, who also “helped” the city along on its path to bankruptcy back in the 1990s, and who has tried to return to the post only to be defeated by James Diossa in 2012, and to the City Council in 2014 – again, defeated by voters presumably unwilling to make the same mistakes made in the past.

What does matter is that three years into his administration Diossa is continuing to bring his home town into the 21st century by celebrating Central Falls’ diversity across the board. And that includes recognizing the place that Central Falls’ gay residents have in this city that still defiantly calls itself “the city with a bright future.”

This is the second year that Diossa has raised the rainbow flag, the symbol of the LGBTQ community since the 1970s. He joins Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza who raised the flag on June 5 to kick off Rhode Island Pride season.

The group that gathered at this flag raising ceremony was small but inclusive – Hispanic, Anglo, African American, current and former residents – and all were openly delighted. There were also representatives from Senator Whitehouse’s office, as well as city officials and employees, and a representative from Governor Raimondo’s office.

This ceremony seemed particularly significant, held on the day before the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of marriage equality across the United States. In his remarks, Diossa talked about the importance of recognizing ALL residents of the city.

“Our LGBTQ community deserves to be recognized with a symbol that is known and flown proudly all over the world,” he said. In speaking to me after the ceremony, he said “I really don’t understand what the big deal is.” For him, the “big deal” is the importance of people loving each other and that it be recognized socially and legally.

There are no statistics on how large the Central Falls gay population is. Doesn’t matter.

What’s important is that, in an age where marriage equality is law across the United States, and more and more Americans now support it, the small city of Central Falls is striking a solid blow that firmly asserts that diversity comes in all forms.

This is almost revolutionary in a city that was once a densely Catholic bastion of conservative social values and dominated by Anglo ethnic groups (French Canadian, Middle Eastern, Polish, and the like) that didn’t even welcome the “invasion” of Hispanics into “their” town.

Mayor Diossa is no stranger to embracing gay rights. In 2013 he joined several other Rhode Island mayors in supporting the legalization of gay marriage here. That support undoubtedly helped the bill pass and become law. Quoted in an article posted on the gay rights organization Human Rights Campaign website , he said “Marriage tells our communities that two people are uniquely committed to one another – that they are a family.”

What is interesting is that Central Falls is now predominantly Hispanic at 65.7%, an ethnic group not historically noted for its support of gay rights. That appears to be changing. A recent Pew Center study found that Hispanics have joined the ranks of supporters of marriage equality at 56%.

This is possibly the result of millennials (age 18-34) now being counted as a force to be reckoned with, likely undercutting traditional social conservative values of their elders. Or it’s possible that Hispanics, who are experiencing ethnic backlash in several states such as Arizona and Texas, even as their political clout has grown, realize it’s time to join with other minorities and support their battles.

An article on the Pew Center website discusses how Hispanic values are changing, thanks to fluctuating religious identities and experiences.

However, that doesn’t mean that Central Falls Hispanics would look kindly upon gay rights. Well aware that raising the flag might offend this predominantly Hispanic city, Diossa, who is of Colombian heritage, cares only that the city recognizes diversity, saying that Central Falls has always been a “gateway city,” where immigrants and minorities can create new lives, and that celebrating gay rights is simply one more way to celebrate the city’s residents.

He made a point of referencing opponents – “Despite the open and loving arms of Central Falls residents, there are still some who whose acceptance of our neighbors is limited.”

Some former and current residents are delighted. Central Falls native and current Riverside resident Ricky Gagnon was glad to hear about the flag raising, saying in a Facebook post “Very cool that my old hood is catching up to being trendy like me.” Central Falls resident Kelly F, declining to give her full name, was at the ceremony and thrilled to see it happen. She said, “This means that maybe my wife and I will finally be fully accepted in my hometown.”

Others of an older, predominantly Anglo, generation mourn the loss of morals in a city slipping out of their control. A woman who lives in one of the two public senior and disabled housing complexes was heard to say that this definitely would not have happened if Moreau or the former City Council was still around. Or any of the other perennial Central Falls politicos. Another called the whole affair “sick.”

It can’t be easy to be on the losing side of social progress, of course, or the wrong side of history. The sky is certainly falling for those who dig in their heels and cry for ‘the good old days’ when men were men, women knew their place, and gays were considered morally corrupt.

Those days are disappearing in the rear view mirror, and rainbows are the order of the day in Central Falls. And as a resident of this small but fierce urban survivor, I couldn’t be more proud.

Lin Collette is a Central Falls resident and a Progressive Charlestown contributor. Her original article appears HERE.

This is not paid for by the entire state, but largely by the 118,000 households in the NBC district – Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, North Providence, Johnston, Cumberland, Lincoln and the northern part of East Providence – almost $7,000 per household.

The NBC wants to proceed with this despite concerns about “affordability” – recognized by the EPA as legitimate, despite the potential of alternative “green infrastructure,” despite concerns about the fairness of who pays, and despite not having the time to assess the results of phase 2, just recently completed. Also, though there is some flexibility in meeting federal clean water standards, it seems the NBC goal is to go beyond the minimum, even as Phase 1 and 2 has already cost about $547 million and has approximately quadrupled sewer bills for residents, whether they rent or own.

The problem the NBC is addressing is the combination of our sewage with stormwater runoff overwhelms the treatment plant after a storm and untreated sewage get into Narragansett Bay. Phase 1 constructed the tunnels, pipes and pump stations to temporarily store the stormwater, phase 2 involved interceptors, drains and catch basin improvements. Phase 3 is apparently more tunnels.

Roughly 80 percent of the flow after storms is due to runoff from roads, parking lots and other impervious surfaces, but the cost is almost all born by those contributing the 20 percent of sewage. This is another subsidy to drivers from all over who use the roads and parking lots at stores, offices, state government, hospitals, colleges etc. A big beneficiary of the spending are shoreline property owners who pay nothing, shellfishermen and other Bay users. There is a possible social justice issue here.

There are few checks and balances. There was a “stakeholder” review process that few know about. The PUC rubber stamps what the NBC wants, even allowing monthly billing which tripled postage and processing costs compared to the previous quarterly billing, perhaps hiding the scope of the increases. Local politicians don’t much care, they are not blamed as the sewer bills are not collected through their tax system. The state’s environmental community understandably just wants the Bay cleaned up and is little concerned with who pays, even if the metro area becomes increasingly unaffordable. And though Transport Providence and others have tried to call attention to the role of parking lots and the auto culture that underlies a lot of this problem, and others on the problem of runoff from fertilized lawns, the issue, unlike the ballpark or trolley, is too complex to get easy attention.

While no expert on this, I do recommend attention to this issue and I wonder what the progressive community thinks about this project. Visit www.narrabay.com for the NBC viewpoint and plenty of information.

Rhode Island is very generous to libraries in affluent suburban communities and relatively stingy to the libraries in poor urban cities. In fact, the state library funding formula funnels the most state aid per resident to, in order most to least: Barrington, Jamestown, North Kingstown, East Greenwich and Cumberland. The least state aid goes to, in order least to most: Central Falls, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, West Warwick and Providence.

RI Future first reported this in March, 2014. The state funding formula for libraries is so regressive that even the Koch brother-aligned Center for Freedom and Prosperity recognized it needs to be altered in its Spotlight on Spending report last year. The attention inspired Rep. Maldonado and Sen. Crowley, both of Central Falls, to author legislation that would increase state library funding to the poorest cities in the state.

Fitzpatrick joined the chorus in his Sunday column, with an endorsement of Maldonado’s and Crowley’s bill. It is “absolutely a good idea because libraries are especially crucial sources of information and education in poorer communities, where fewer people have the money for laptops or books from Amazon,” he wrote.

It’s worth noting that Central Falls’ library was shuttered when the city went through bankruptcy and at the time the state gave more matching funds to Barrington than it would have cost to keep Central Falls’ library open.

“It says right in Rhode Island state law that free public libraries are essential to the general enlightenment of citizens in a democracy and that they are an integral part of the educational system at all levels,” said Central Falls Rep. Shelby Maldonado, the sponsor of the bill in the House. “The law also says that it’s the responsibility of government to provide adequate financial support for all free public libraries. In order for that to be done fairly and effectively, it’s only right that the state should increase library aid to distressed communities to cover their annual assessments to Ocean State Libraries.”

The Central Falls library was shuttered for a time as the city went through bankruptcy. Sen. Betty Crowley, the Senate sponsor of the bill, said only because of a few large, high profile donations does Central Falls have a functioning library. “If it weren’t for people like Viola Davis and Alec Baldwin, they would still be closed,” she said.

In spite of their generosity, the library in Central Falls can’t afford to open on weekends, and closes at 6pm on weekdays. This is an acute issue for Central Falls, said Maldonado.

“A lot of families here still don’t have broad band and don’t even have the internet,” she said. “Our kids don’t have the support they need.”

Crowley said the additional state aid “could enable us to open up on Saturdays.”

The legislation would direct about $500,000 from the general fund to libraries in the seven distressed cities: Providence, $284,423; Pawtucket, $65,124; Woonsocket, $53,107; North Providence, $48,437; West Warwick, $40,321 and Central Falls, $18,566. The amounts are based on the contribution each community makes to the Ocean State Library consortium, the umbrella organization for local libraries in Rhode Island.

The new revenue would come from the general fund, Maldonado said, and thus wouldn’t affect state library funding in other communities. “Leadership is open to the idea and we continue to have ongoing conversations,” she said.

Rhode Island’s state library funding formula matches city and town investment, a regressive method that rewards affluence and punishes poverty. Last year the state gave $337,167 in library aid to Barrington and $26,046 to Central Falls.

An RI Future investigation last year showed per resident Rhode Island gives the most library aid to: Barrington, Jamestown, North Kingstown, East Greenwich and Cumberland. The communities to get the least state library aid per resident were: Central Falls, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, West Warwick and Providence.

Deborah Barchi, director of the Barrington library and a past president of the Ocean State Libraries consortium, told RI Future last year she thinks the state funding formula for local libraries is fair. “Each town makes those decisions based on what they value,” she said. “No matter what metric you use, there would be somebody who would feel they weren’t getting enough money.”

But Steve Larrick, the Central Falls planning director and a member of the city library’s board of directors disagreed.

“We think the state needs to play a role in our urban libraries,” he said at the time. “Barrington doesn’t need a library to have access to tremendous resources,” he said. “They have great access to broadband in their homes, and their schools are top notch. Their school library is probably better than our public library. A dollar spent there will not be as meaningful as a dollar spent on the Central Falls library.”

Even the very conservative Center for Freedom and Prosperity, in its spotlight on spending report last year, agreed the state library aid formula is highly regressive.

“It isn’t often that we get to agree with our progressive friends on a matter of government spending, but RIFuture editor Bob Plain noticed that the state gives extra library aid to some communities because they’re able to invest more in their own facilities,” according to its report. “Consequently, Barrington receives over $20 per resident to subsidize its gem of a library while urban residents receive less than $10.”

The Senate Finance Committee will consider the bill today after the full Senate convenes.

Nearly 160 teachers in five urban school districts are getting more resources for classroom innovation thanks to $148,000 in grants from the Rhode Island Foundation.

Full-time third-grade teachers in any public or charter school in Central Falls, Newport, Pawtucket, Providence and Woonsocket were eligible to for Spark Grants of up to $1,000 to fund programs that will engage students through unique experiences and creative learning methods in order to stimulate their interest in academics.

At Francis Varieur School in Pawtucket , third-grade teachers Mary Bergeron and Donna Sawyer will pool their $1,000 grants to purchase 25 cameras to support learning activities related to a social studies unit on urban, suburban and rural communities. The cameras will enable teachers to weave art into their lesson plans and foster the development of 21st-century skills through the use of digital technology.

In Providence, the proposals range from recruiting an artist to help Pleasant View Elementary students write a narrative version of Cinderella to a year-long character education program at William D’Abate Elementary, including field trips to the Providence Police and Fire Departments.

Conceived by philanthropists Letitia and John Carter, the Spark Grants program was launched last year with $75,000 in awards to Providence third-grade teachers. Based on the results, the initiative was expanded this year to include the four new communities.

“We were impressed by the creativity and impact of last year’s proposals. Third grade is a crucial period in the academic development of children. Widening the reach of the program will put more youngsters on the road to a lifetime of academic achievement,” says Letitia Carter.

OpportunitySpace RI includes maps, info about taxes and zoning, key contacts and photos of more than 2,000 local-, state-, federal- and quasi-governmental-agency -owned properties in Central Falls, Cumberland, Pawtucket and Providence. The listings include residential and commercial properties, municipal buildings and vacant lots. In addition, the cities of Central Falls and Providence have also listed hundreds of tax-delinquent properties.

The website also translated the Blackstone River Valley Corridor Plan into a digital interface so that interested developers can see how planned infrastructure investments relate to available parcels.

Municipal leaders believe the website will have many benefits, including generating conversations about publicly owned property.

“Information hubs like Opportunity Space will continue increasing transparency in municipal government and establish competitive processes for developing or selling our city-owned properties,” said Central Falls Mayor James Diossa. “By highlighting these properties, Opportunity Space is also empowering our residents to speak up and take ownership of what they want to see in our community.”

“Having an open and transparent online clearinghouse of publicly owned parcels will allow for town officials to have quicker and more efficient interactions with developers about possible investments and economic development opportunities that may have been overlooked in the past,” said Cumberland Mayor Dan McKee.

“By cooperating with other communities, we can leverage our resources to attract maximum marketing exposure and economic development interest,” said Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien.

“Marketing available real estate is a key goal of my economic development plan, Putting Providence Back to Work,” said Providence Mayor Angel Taveras. “We are pleased to join this effort to create a regional inventory of properties that are available for development. We are working to ensure that when businesses look to invest, opportunities in Providence are at their fingertips.”

The website was developed by OpportunitySpace, a technology company based in Boston at the Harvard Innovation Lab. It hopes to add every city and town to the database.

The project was funded by the four municipalities, the Pawtucket Foundation, the Sunlight Foundation and the Rhode Island Foundation.

The Barrington library has more than 129,000 print items on its shelves and lent out 384,257 materials last year. The Central Falls library has about 34,000 print items on the shelves and lent out 14,994 materials last year. Barrington’s library is open seven days a week, and Monday through Thursday it’s open for 12 hours a day – 9 am to 9pm. Central Falls’ library is open six days a week; five hours a day on Saturdays and seven on weekdays. Barrington’s library employs 45 people, 15 of them full time, and Central Falls employs two full time and two part time people. The Barrington library’s annual budget is just over $1.5 million and the Central Falls library’s budget is $165,000.

Another difference is the amount each will get in state aid this year. Governor Chafee’s proposed budget would give $341,488 to Barrington and $17,569 to Central Falls. That’s because state library aid is appropriated based on a library’s budget rather than its need.

Here’s the law: “For each city or town, the state’s share to support local public library services shall be equal to at least twenty-five percent (25%) of both the amount appropriated and expended in the second preceding fiscal year by the city or town from local tax revenues and funds from the public library’s private endowment that supplement the municipal appropriation.”

As such, state taxpayers generally send more dollars per resident to suburban libraries than to urban libraries.

Deborah Barchi, director of the Barrington library and a past president of the Ocean State Libraries consortium, thinks the state funding formula for local libraries is fair.

“Each town makes those decisions based on what they value,” she said. “No matter what metric you use, there would be somebody who would feel they weren’t getting enough money.”

But Steve Larrick, the president of the Central Falls Public Library Board, disagrees.

“We think the state needs to play a role in our urban libraries,” he said. Rhode Island “needs to do a better job of thinking about these social determinants.”

Larrick, who is also the town planning director in Central Falls, explained what he meant about social determinants.

“Barrington doesn’t need a library to have access to tremendous resources,” he said. “They have great access to broadband in their homes, and their schools are top notch. Their school library is probably better than our public library. A dollar spent there will not be as meaningful as a dollar spent on the Central Falls library.”

Central Falls almost lost its library when the city filed for bankruptcy two years ago. Receiver Bob Flanders closed the library and a grassroots community effort aided by New York Times coverage and a $10,000 donation from Alec Baldwin, kept the doors open. But operating expenses were decimated, and because the funding formula uses budget numbers from two years ago it is hitting them in state funding this year.

“For this year and next year, the average is really down because of the bankruptcy,” Larrick said.

I asked Governor Chafee to comment on the disparity in funding between the Barrington and Central Falls libraries. Spokeswoman Faye Zuckerman sent this:

“As Governor, a former mayor and city councilor, Governor Chafee has been an advocate for Rhode Island’s cities and towns. Throughout his years in office, he has been working to reverse the damage done by the past administration to municipalities and the Rhode Island property taxpayer.”