EVANS CITY — As a resident of Evans City, Diana Zoelle had concerns over how borough council answered her questions.

“When I first came on council (in July), I had been communicating with council for a while about things that I thought were important, and sometimes I didn't get a response as quickly as I wanted, or I didn't get a clear enough response or I didn't think they were listening to me as much as I thought they should,” Zoelle said.

Now, as a member of the council, Zoelle thinks it's important to explain why some questions are not immediately answered when they are asked.

“When I was appointed to council then, I thought it may be a good idea to explain to me what the limitations are of government and why officials don't respond to them there in the meeting,” she said.

One way of doing this, she decided, was to start publishing a community newsletter. Zoelle said there was a newsletter that existed when she moved to Evans City, but it was “narrowly focused.”

“When I decided to do this, I hadn't seen anything in the intervening months — almost a year — so I just went forward with this,” Zoelle said.

She took the first step and went to a local printing company, which offered to print the first issue — 200 copies of it — at no cost. One of the prevalent items in the first edition was her reaffirming the council's commitment to the Evans City community and recognizing the community's efforts in furthering the borough's goals.

“One of those things we don't do enough of is to say how much our citizens do, how much our churches do, how much our community organizations do, (and) identifying those pieces and giving people a talk about good things rather than just things they're unhappy about,” Zoelle said.

Recognizing the contributions of people in the community is just one part of Zoelle's optimism. She said some of the community's frustrations — which she cited as having little property that can be expanded into or developed upon — actually highlight some of its qualities.

“We do have a downtown. We have Main Street. We have potential for that quaint familiarity with small-town closeness that seemed to be more prevalent in the past,” Zoelle said.

And understanding the frustrations some community members have, Zoelle said, makes her a better councilwoman because she was once in their shoes.

“I'm trying to be the citizen who needs the answers while I'm sitting there listening to the question,” she said.