NORTH PROVIDENCE -- With five days to go before the Democratic primary election, the town is fully decked out in support of its mayor's campaign for higher office. There are innumerable lawn signs, and a banner at Mayor A. Ralph Mollis' campaign headquarters, in a prominent location on Mineral Spring Avenue.

Then, there's Generations Adult Day Health Center.

Also on Mineral Spring Avenue, the town's main drag, the facility is owned by Rocco Gesualdi, a North Providence resident who supported Mollis' opponent in the last mayor's race. In front of the facility is a 3-foot-by-4-foot sign promoting Guillaume de Ramel for secretary of state.

Gesualdi says he got a phone call from Joseph A. Montalbano, state Senate president and North Providence Municipal Court judge, on Tuesday urging him to take the sign down.

"He said that both himself and Mayor Mollis were insulted by the fact that I would have the mayor's opponent's sign on the lawn in front, and that it would be in everybody's best interest if the sign were to be taken down," Gesualdi said.

Gesualdi said it was out of the ordinary for Montalbano to call him. While the two men have interacted in the past because Montalbano's law practice represents a church on property adjacent to Gesualdi's, "I don't have a personal relationship with him at all," Gesualdi said.

Generations Adult Day Health Center, at 1073 Mineral Spring Ave., offers programs to more than 150 people with physical and mental disabilities. Gesualdi said "99 percent" of the facility's annual budget comes from the state, either in the form of direct state funding or Medicaid money passed along from the federal government. The facility is licensed by the state Department of Elderly Affairs and has a contract with the state Department of Human Services to run a brain-injury rehabilitation program.

"By no means am I going to say that he threatened me," Gesualdi said. "But he is the Senate president. He is the appointed municipal judge in the Town of North Providence. He is appointed by Mayor Mollis. And he's calling me to take a yard sign down. You read between the lines."

Montalbano, who also lives in North Providence and has a law office on Mineral Spring Avenue, would not comment on Gesualdi's characterization of the phone call, or even say whether he made the call. "I think that race on Tuesday should be decided on issues," he said. "It's the most negative campaign I've ever seen."

Mollis said neither he nor anyone from his campaign asked Montalbano to call Gesualdi.

Based on Gesualdi's account of the phone call, Mollis said he didn't think it was inappropriate. "My understanding is that the phone call was from Joe Montalbano the attorney," he said. "I am confident that the phone call was not made as Senate president."

He added that Gesualdi "has had significant success in North Providence having his property rezoned . . . and rightfully so. . . . He runs a very good business there and we are more than happy to assist him to succeed in North Providence. His support of my opponent does not play any part in how he's treated."

In 2004, when Mollis was running for reelection as mayor, Gesualdi loaned Mollis' opponent, Charles A. Lombardi, space for campaign headquarters and fundraising functions. But Gesualdi said yesterday that he supports de Ramel, a Newport financial adviser and entrepreneur, for reasons other than the fact that he's running against Mollis. "It's time for a clean breath of fresh air, someone new, someone who doesn't have political ties," Gesualdi said, adding that de Ramel "brings that to the table."

As for the sign, Gesualdi said it's staying up.

He noted that he has a sign for another political candidate, North Providence Town Council candidate Joseph Giammarco, on the same property.

Montalbano "didn't seem to have a problem" with that sign, Gesualdi said.

egudrais@projo.com / (401) 277-7045