Greenville borough council's newest member is used to seeing things from the other side of council's table at monthly meetings.

Joanne Gibson-Price, who regularly attends meetings of the financially-strapped town's council, was appointed last week to fill one of three vacant council seats.

"Since I always have comments and suggestions from the other side of the table, I decided I should try to see if I could work with council directly," she said.

Ms. Gibson-Price served on board of the Greenville Area Preservation Association, which raised money to refurbish the borough's Christmas decorations this year. She will be resigning her spot on the board, she said, to avoid a conflict of interest, but will remain a member of the organization.

She has also been part of committees that addressed neighborhood problems, such as traffic and parking congestion.

"My priority will be to do everything in my power to create an atmosphere of economic development in the area," she said.

That atmosphere, she said, would be helped by a greater cooperation between Greenville's civic organizations and between Greenville and the surrounding communities.

"Greenville needs to become more open to newcomers and to new ideas," she said. "That will encourage different types of businesses to come here."

The town's council has been down from seven members to four after three councilmen resigned in one week before Christmas.

A council member will be out of town next week, Longiotti said, and a fifth member would be needed in order to have a quorum, or majority, of the board present.

Without a quorum, the board would not be able to carry out business.

Ms. Gibson-Price was appointed before the meeting, Longiotti said, to make that quorum.

"She is very civic minded," Longiotti said of Ms. Gibson-Price.

Ms. Gibson-Price holds degrees in Russian and Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and has twenty years of experience working with federal government agencies, business groups, foreign embassy staff, and foreign advisory groups.

She also served as chairwoman of the Washington, D.C. based Women in Government Relations -- Foreign Relations and International Trade committee.

Recently, she was the vice president of marketing support service for Aries 4 Ltd.

Council has been shorthanded since Dec. 15, when former council president Bryan Langietti resigned for personal reasons.

Ian Scott Forbes resigned Dec. 16, and Richard S. Houpt resigned Dec. 20, both citing health reasons.

Longiotti said the other two council seats would be filled at Tuesday's meeting. He said a total of nine people had applied for the seats.

Of the nine, council pared the applicants down to five, and made their final selections from that group.

In the next election, Greenville residents will have to elect five new council members.

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Amanda Smith-Teutsch at: ateutsch@sharonherald.com