For the past 23 years, Lisa Rice has been a fixture in the Warren County Public Library system.

Last April she retired and WCPL decided to honor her by re-naming the Main Library to the “Lisa Rice Library.”

On Wednesday afternoon, community members celebrated the re-naming with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

“We don’t have a great library just because we have a great library, it’s because of the leadership of Lisa Rice,” said Warren County Judge-Executive Doug Gorman. “What a fitting thing to name (the library) after her.”

Growing up, Rice was an avid reader, she said. In 1985 while attending Western Kentucky University, she was given the opportunity to work for WCPL and hasn’t left since. She has been working for the library in some capacity either as a student, part-time or full-time worker. For over 20 years, Rice has been providing books and materials to kids who were just like her.

“(My) family has always valued giving back to our communities and have been blessed with the career where I could do that as my job,” Rice said. 

The hardest part about leaving WCPL for Rice was leaving the people, she said. It was apparent that the community feels the same way.

“When you get to go out to do (something) like a summer reading kickoff, and you’re just out there playing with kids, making sure kids are getting books and (seeing) how excited they are to do that, that’s easily my favorite part,” Rice said. “It is the people that I’ve gotten to interact with over the years.”