Longmont’s newest reporter is an 11-year-old blogger.

Isabelle Saunders has started a website called Izzy’s Eye on Longmont where she aims to post weekly news/opinion hybrid pieces on the city’s goings on.

Isabelle, a fifth grader at Flagstaff Academy, inherited her interest in local government from mom, who is involved in their homeowners association as well as the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and the Neighborhood Group Leaders Association.

Isabelle started her blog after the Feb. 19 City Council meeting, posting her analysis of the almost-four-hour proceeding.

“I wanted kids to know what was happening in their neighborhood but not having to (attend) all these events and I’m trying to translate it into their kid kind of way,” Isabelle said. “I want it so kids can have an easy place to look up on the Internet and see what’s happening in their neighborhood…I think that’s what I would (have liked) to do when I was younger, like 8 or 9.”

For the Feb. 19 meeting, Isabelle sat in the audience, taking notes and photos with her iPod Touch and later compiling them into a blog post that night.

Isabelle encountered a new kind of story on Wednesday, when she attended the city’s open forum at the Longmont Public Library and interviewed various people for her blog, furiously taking notes on the scraps of paper provided to library patrons.

“What I do is I kind of listen and pick up bits and pieces and try to put them together like a puzzle in my writing,” Isabelle said. “But I also try to make it interesting for myself so it’s more interesting for kids my age and younger.”

Her mom, Amy Saunders, said she was impressed with her oldest daughter’s initiative.

“I really applaud her for wanting to infuse information-based ideas at school and get, maybe, the kids interested in the parks,” Saunders said. “She’s always had an ability to just write. Some kids will sketch and some kids will build things but she will just write. I tried to get her in a creative writing group. Not interested. I tried to get her to do writing contests and she kind of did that for about five minutes. But this has been the most fire in her belly about something. I don’t know if it’s a deadline or having someone else watching for it.”

While Amy suggests ideas for the blog, it’s clear that Isabelle is at the helm, both in its content and focus. When her mom asks whether the next post will be about an upcoming Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meeting, Isabelle nixes the idea. She wants to examine the merits of the Colorado Measures of Academic Success standardized test instead.

Isabelle said her unique position in the media landscape of course comes with some challenges. Besides balancing late-night city meetings with school work, she also wants those in charge to realize that kids need a seat at the table too.

“Because some adults don’t think kids know anything, I think that’d be a challenge, just like the disbelief that I would know anything like this,” Isabelle said. “Kids, not that they can do anything adults can do, but they can do some things.”

Karen Antonacci: 303-684-5226, antonaccik@times-call.com or twitter.com/ktonacci