Having served on the village board for about 20 years, Diane Loeven is seeking another term because of her long-held commitment to preserving small-town living in Otisville.
“My heart has always been in Otisville,” Ms. Loeven told The Epoch Times. “It was my happy place as a child; it was where I grew up, and it was where I came back to after I had moved away as an adult.
“I really want to see Otisville maintain its hometown feeling—the small community where people, when walking along in the summertime, stop and talk to people sitting out on their porches—and the only way to guarantee that is a strong commitment to the zoning and planning process.”
As a child, Ms. Loeven visited family members in Otisville almost every weekend until the year she turned 9, when her family decided to move from Jersey City to the village for good.
After college, she taught math at a middle school in Bergen County, New Jersey, for seven years before moving back to the small village where she grew up.
During the early 1980s, Ms. Loeven taught all levels of adult classes at the federal prison in Otisville, including literacy, high school equivalency preparation, and pre-college lessons.
“I loved working with adults, and the thing I enjoyed most was seeing the ‘aha moment’ when they believed they could learn—once the light went on, they just took off,” she said.
After a few years, she was promoted to a managerial role and eventually became the education supervisor at the prison, where she oversaw more than a dozen employees plus 30 or so BOCES teachers.
Meanwhile, Ms. Loeven followed in her father’s footsteps to become a member of the zoning board of appeals in the 1980s and, over the following years of service, developed a strong appreciation of zoning and planning mechanisms as primary ways to preserve small-town living.
In 2003, after retiring from her federal prison job, Ms. Loeven ran for a trustee seat on the Otisville village board, where she has served almost continuously until now.
As a trustee, she chaired the comprehensive plan review committee since its creation and led a group of volunteers for nearly a decade in updating the decades-old zoning laws.
After the zoning laws were finalized in 2011, the review committee met as needed to address emerging regulatory issues, such as cell towers and solar panels.
Ms. Loeven also created the town newsletter in the early 2000s to inform residents about garbage pickup schedules, town events, and regulatory changes, such as a new speed limit or skateboard policy.
“If we expect people to follow regulations, they need to know what they are,” she said.
For a long time, she served as the village liaison to the zoning board of appeals, planning board, and the building department, which played a crucial role in enforcing zoning ordinances.
Ms. Loeven also ran the joint town-village summer recreation program for more than a decade.
Outside her village trustee function, she has been involved in several initiatives benefiting seniors, including a volunteer organization that provides assistance in transportation, shopping, and home visits free of charge to local seniors.
Running for another village trustee term, Ms. Loeven said she wanted to work with Mayor Brian Carey and the village board to jumpstart the process of updating the current zoning laws.
“It wouldn’t be a total revision, but we do need to start looking at it—it is recommended that you update them every five to 10 years,” she said.
The former review committee identified ideas such as subjecting two-family dwellings to the same state requirements as multi-family residences and creating regulations for short-term rentals.
She also said she looks forward to further revitalizing the heart of the village or downtown, given that the village recently obtained the long-sought ownership of the parking lot.
Reviving a past downtown revitalization committee would be a good idea, she added.
In alignment with her longtime dedication to local seniors, Ms. Loeven said she remained committed to developing Veteran Memorial Park as a passive recreation area.
“We have a beautiful sports complex between the village and the town here for kids, but we also need to have something for our older adults, and I think that’s what the veterans park gives us,” she said.
Four candidates are vying for two village trustee seats up for grabs on March 19.
The Otisville-Mount Hope Democratic Committee has endorsed Ms. Loeven.
