PROVIDENCE — The Providence Public Library plans to send out layoff notices to roughly 60 employees next week, in what library leaders are calling a precautionary move in case the city and the library cannot reach a deal on funding for the next fiscal year.

Library officials fear that if the city does not fund the libraries at all in the fiscal year starting July 1, they could be forced to fire as many as 60 of its nearly 100 employees. There have been no indications that the city has any plans to pull its funding.

To comply with contract law, the library must send the notices out by Tuesday if it plans to lay off employees July 1.

But even as they plan for the worst, some on both sides think that they are finally getting close to an agreement, after nearly a year of minimal progress.

“A tremendous amount of progress was made in the last week to 10 days,” said Kas DeCarvalho, the mayor’s appointee to the board of trustees.

Both sides have agreed that a written contract between the city and the libraries is needed, he said.

And he said the city and the libraries are close to an agreement on public governance of the library board: they are weighing a plan that would add a non-voting appointee from the City Council, encourage the city to nominate voting members to the board, and create a sub-group of some trustees and some members of the public to help oversee the city’s financial contributions.

They are still working on the money end, he said. The city is open to increasing its annual payment to the libraries from the flat $3 million it pays now, but probably not to the $5-million figure the libraries are looking for.

“What the city wants to do is fund [the libraries] at the current level, plus. But nobody will say exactly what that plus is,” he said.

Library leadership was happy to hear of the progress, but said that they still have to continue every eventuality — including sending the notices.

“I think it’s unrealistic to think we can work through these very complicated issues within the next few days,” said trustee Bill Simmons. “I think that the library is completely foolish to foreclose on any of its options at this point.”

“All of this is very encouraging,” said Board Chairwoman Lisa Churchville, while noting that she thought the negotiations should have been at this point months ago.

The PPL is a private, nonprofit organization that has provided library services for the city for more than 100 years without a contract.

But after financial problems that led to layoffs and reduced hours, the two parties have been rethinking the relationship. The branches are operating under a one-year agreement with the city that allows the library to operate at a deficit in its $8.6-million budget as long as it maintains services and works with the group of mayoral appointees and library trustees to identify options for the future. The operating agreement ends June 30.

The city and the libraries have been negotiating as a group established by Mayor David N. Cicilline to figure out the relationship between the city and the library system. But the July 1 start of the next fiscal year is only two months away, and the library cannot draw up its own budget until it knows what the city will contribute.

Yesterday, library staff presented the board of trustees with three contingency plans depending on what the city decides to do.

If the city provided enough money to maintain the current level of service, there would be little change.

If the city maintained its current $3-million annual payment, it would mean laying off 20 library staffers, according to Library Associate Director Dan Austin.

And if the city removed its funding altogether — a scenario that seems extremely unlikely — the library would have to lay off 60 of its clerks, librarians, and specialists.

After hearing that presentation, the trustees voted to allow the library staff to prepare for all three scenarios, which would include sending out the layoff notices in case the third scenario occurs.

Karen McAninch, an official with the United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island, which represents the library’s 90 unionized employees, said that the need to send the notices just doesn’t seem to be there.

“I’m very disappointed that notices will be sent out to the employees. I really don’t think that’s necessary,” she said.

dbarbari@projo.com