With more than 50 attendees, a May 5 meeting featured residents discussing what they like about Evans City, what they dislike and what they'd want to see the borough have more of.

Although the Evans City of yonder — aided by the oil boon in the early 20th century — won’t make a return anytime soon, that won’t stop its residents from working to rejuvenate the borough.

With more than 50 attendees, a May 5 meeting featured residents discussing what they like about Evans City, what they dislike and what they’d want to see the borough have more of.

Ben Levenger of Downtown Redevelopment Services, a contractor that aids municipalities with planning their futures, said that while there are largely two camps in Evans City — those calling for a recovery of the borough’s past successes and those looking to improve things in new ways for the future — their ultimate desires aren’t that different.

“They really do have the same ideas in mind,” Levenger said. “It’s just how they get to their end goal that differs.”

Ultimately, the feedback residents provided at that meeting — ranging from whether residents feel safe while walking to what amenities they’d want to see — will end up forming the basis of the borough’s comprehensive plan, its first in two and a half decades.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appears in Monday’s Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.