The following excerpt is from an extensive article – with video footage & photographs – posted April 30, 2015 at the wrpi.com website.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Some of Rhode Island’s most important and historic records are just a power outage away from damage and destruction.
Rhode Island is the only state in the nation that does not have a permanent location for their state archives, according to the Secretary of State’s office. The leased office space that currently houses centuries of state law, historic blue prints, birth and death records, even the state’s copy of the Bill of Rights, are located in a building that lies in a floodplain.
A Target 12 review of payments reveals the state pays $248,000 a year in rent to Paolino Properties, a real estate company owned by former Providence Mayor Joespeh Paolino. The archives were moved to the Providence location from the State House in 1990.
In all the state has paid $5.4 million in rent since that time.
