GREENFIELD — Mayor William Martin plans to sign the $9.4 million library grant today to ensure the financing of a $19.5 million new public library, after receiving an opinion from the city’s attorney Tuesday.
The mayor’s decision comes after advocates for the library have held their breath on whether the proposed project, which was passed by the City Council in March after months of campaigns and hot debates, could be derailed by petitioners. The city has until April 30 to accept the grant.
Despite the mayor’s actions, library supporters might not find it the right time to exhale.
Petitioners have until the end of this week — 30 days from the council’s March 20 vote — to submit a valid petition to potentially send the vote to the ballot box in November.
“There might be a path,” Martin said about a petition of the library. “If there’s that, we’ll react to it then.”
Former Town Councilor Steven Ronhave said Tuesday night he is in the process of collecting the needed signatures and he plans on submitting them by the end of the week.
Previously the process for citizens to petition a vote of the council required them to collect 10 signatures within the first 30 days to initiate the process; then they could receive blank forms from the Clerk’s Office to collect a specific percentage of the city’s voters to trigger the next step.
City Attorney Gordon Quinn now reads the charter, which was amended by the council in 2017, differently.
Instead Quinn views that citizens need to collect 319 signatures — 10 percent of the voters from the last biennial election — within 30 days of a vote, to start the process.
Some councilors, including President Karen “Rudy” Renaud and Vice President Penny Ricketts have encouraged residents, via platforms like Facebook, to not sign petitions.
Ronhave had previously submitted a petition on the library vote, but it only had the 10 signatures, which followed the standards of past years.
If Ronhave submits 319-plus signatures by Friday, then the city will be faced with a whole set of new questions. The Clerk’s Office will then need to validate the signatures.
If the petition signatures are valid, the library vote will go back to the council at its next meeting, likely this May.
Technically, the council will vote on whether to rescind its decision; traditionally, rescissions only take a simple-majority and not a two-thirds majority, although for this specific instance city officials are still doing their calculus.
If the council this time doesn’t vote in favor of the library, it likely will effectively kill the library once and for all.
If the council once again votes in favor of the library, it will send it to the ballot box in November, when the city will vote on a new mayor and for six of 13 city councilors.
In the case the city’s voters decide they do not want a new library, the city would be required to return the grant money with interest from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
Typically, about a month after the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners receives a contract from the state — which will likely come this week — the state will issue its first allotment of the grant. In this case that will be about $1.9 million, according to Celeste Bruno, communications director for the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
Martin said he plans to place the money in an account that will accrue interest.
He said he has spoken with state officials and feels comfortable this decision will not hurt the city.
The mayor said he wanted to make sure it was not illegal to sign for grant money that could have to be returned months later. The city attorney’s decision Tuesday gave him the comfort he needed.
This opportunity is too good to pass up, Martin said, given the $2 million additional money that library backers are fundraising for the project. Also, Martin appreciates the level of coordination over a new fire station and money from this project to help make way for it on the grounds of the current station.
“It seems like you’re not going to get these stars aligned in the near future,” Martin said.
You can reach Joshua Solomon at:
jsolomon@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 264