A place for exploration, community collaboration, arts, history, and quiet study will be celebrated this week as Washington’s Public Library hosts a 10th Anniversary celebration. The event begins at 5 p.m. Thursday with an official ribbon cutting with the Washington Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors. Since 2009, the library has had three directors: Patrick Finney, Debbie Stanton, and Bryna Walker. All three directors will be present at the celebration. Finney says he’s looking forward to visiting Washington, “Mostly the people, Washington is just chock-full of really wonderful, wonderful folks who I got to know well and work together well, especially my staff. I love them very much and I’m super excited to see them again.”

Finney was the director when the library was built and migrated from its Main Street location to the current two-story facility. He said the project was a community effort, and its location was important, “It was really important for us when we were looking for a site for the new library to keep it in the downtown district because we really felt that the library is part of the heart of the community and the downtown district is also, you know, physically the heart of the community. And we wanted to keep that connection between the library and the downtown district, that was really a priority for us.”

The community is invited to the 10th Anniversary Celebration from 5-7 p.m. Thursday at the library.