City accuses library of poor maintenance

PROVIDENCE – In a complaint filed on Oct. 14 in Providence Superior Court, the city accused the nonprofit Providence Public Library of failing to maintain seven community libraries.

Providence Public Library leases the libraries to the city, which in turn sublets them to the Providence Community Library organization.

The Providence Public Library, which continues to operate the main library on Empire Street, last week blasted the lawsuit. In a statement, the organization said the suit is “a deliberate campaign … to damage the library and plunder its assets.”

The organization said the city agreed to accept the buildings “as is.” And it blamed the city for holding up a process to transfer the buildings to the city. Providence Public Library complained the city was not offering a fair price for the buildings.

It also charged that the city hired outside lawyer John McConnell Jr. to handle the case because of his political support for Mayor David N. Cicilline, who is running for Congress. The statement called the mayor a “petulant child” upset at the situation.

The mayor’s director of operations, Alix Ogden, fired back that the library’s statement contained “gross inaccuracies and false statements” and that “the city’s No. 1 goal has always been to protect and preserve the neighborhood libraries for our residents.” •