RI Library Advocacy Organizations Urge Town Council To Support Narragansett Library Building Project
GoLocalProv News Team
RI Library Advocacy Organizations Urge Town Council To Support Narragansett Library Building Project
The Rhode Island Library Association and the Rhode Island Coalition of Library Advocates sent letters urging the Narragansett Town Council to "follow the will of town voters" by moving forward with a needed new facility for the currently at capacity Maury Loontjens Memorial Library.
“The Love Your Library Coalition appreciates the support of these organizations who know how essential libraries are to our communities. It’s time for the Narragansett Town Council to listen to respected library experts and Narragansett’s voters who strongly support a much needed modern new space for our library in the Pier Marketplace,” said Nancy DeNuccio, President of the Love Your Library Coalition.
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From the Rhode Island Library Association’s letter:
The Rhode Island Library Association supports Maury Loontjens Memorial Library’s project for a new library in Narragansett. We support the Library staff, the Board of Trustees, and the voters of Narragansett in their desire for a new and improved library facility. We encourage all the parties involved to come together and find a mutually agreeable way to move forward.
From the Rhode Island Coalition of Library Advocates letter:
The Rhode Island Coalition of Library Advocates (COLA), a section of the Rhode Island Library Association, is writing this letter in support of the Maury Loontjens Memorial Library’s (MLML) building project in Narragansett, RI. We support the Library’s staff, the trustees, and the friends of the library as well as the entire Narragansett community who voted in November 2016 to approve a bond for the “[a]cquisition and renovation of real estate and related equipment for a library – Bonds not to exceed $5,800,000.” We support MLML moving forward because of the incalculable service public libraries provide in a democracy: fostering lifelong education, encouraging self-empowerment, and building economic opportunity and community sustainability. To fulfill MLML’s mission, “as a public pathway that enriches our community culturally, intellectually, technologically, recreationally and socially,” it is essential to build the new library in a timely fashion given that a clear majority (67.9%) of those who voted in the 2016 election approved the referendum.
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