R.I. Gen. Laws § 45-32-32
No sum paid into the court or any interest paid on it shall be charged with clerk's fees of any nature. After the filing of the copy of the resolution, plat, and declaration, notice of the taking shall be served upon the owners of or persons having any estate or interest in the real property by the sheriff or the sheriff 's deputies of the county in which the person or persons reside, by leaving a copy attested by the secretary of the agency of the resolution and declaration with each of the persons personally, or at their last and usual place of abode in this state with some person living there, and in case the person or persons do not reside in the county where the property is situated or are absent from this state and have no last and usual place of abode in the county occupied by any person, the copy shall be left by the sheriff or the sheriff's deputies of the county where the real property lies with the person, if any, in charge of or having possession of the real property if the person is known to the officer. Whenever any owner or person entitled to any estate in or any interest in any part of the real property taken resides or is without the state, the agency shall cause to be served on that person personally, or at his or her last usual place of abode, a copy attested as prescribed of the resolution and declaration by any disinterested person, which person shall make affidavit of the service and of the mode in which, the time within, and the place at which, the service has been made; or service may be made by the admission of service by the person on the back of a copy of the resolution and a declaration and by his or her acknowledgment before an officer authorized to administer oaths under the law of the place where the admission of service is acknowledged.
R.I. Gen. Laws § 45-32-32