Remembering this year?s accomplishments

    As the year comes to a close, it?s time to look back at what has happened in the past 12 months. The City of Washington has accomplished quite a few things in 2009. The downtown enhancement project and the new library building were among the significant additions to the town that occurred in 2009.

    The downtown enhancement project began in the spring of 2007. The project consisted of resurfacing streets on all four sides of the square, including additional resurfacing on Washington Street. The town also saw new sidewalks, streetlights, and underground utilities installed in the downtown area.

    City Administrator Dave Plyman said the enhancement project is now 99 percent complete with a price tag of roughly $1.8 million. He said the project has been a tremendous success.

    ?People in the community have talked about revamping the downtown area since the 1980s, so it?s great to see it finally completed,? said Plyman. ?We had our engineers work on the project for the last few years, and it has turned out beautifully.?

    The new library south of the square opened its doors to the public on Oct. 1 this year. The new building is the product of over a year and a half of demolition and construction. Three buildings once occupied the space on Washington Street that the new library now occupies. In May 2008, those three buildings were demolished to make room for the library. Construction on the library began that summer and continued until September of this year, when the finishing touches were applied to the building. The former library closed its doors in late September and its collections were transported to the new library over the following weeks.

    The new library cost $6 million and is now a prominent feature of Washington?s downtown. Plyman said he was very pleased at how the library turned out.

For the full story, see the Dec. 28 edition of The Washington Evening Journal