SHADYSIDE — Shadyside Village Council recently changed its policy on the open public forum portion of its meetings.

The new policy states that in order to speak during a Shadyside Village Council meeting, an individual must be listed on the scheduled agenda. To sign up to be on the agenda, people can call the mayor’s office and outline the topic they would like the council to address.

Once confirmed with the mayor’s office, individual speakers will be automatically added to the agenda.

Council President Brandon Parr provided the following announcement to The Times Leader earlier this month: Shadyside Village Council will require any citizen wishing to speak at council meetings to provide a minimum of a 24-hour notice to the Mayor’s Office along with his/her name and his/her reasoning for speaking/topic to address. This is not a new procedure, but will continue to allow council to respond promptly and appropriately to its citizens.

Mayor Bob Newhart said the purpose of the change is to allow village leaders to be more informed on the topics raised so they can better address the issues at the meeting instead of being blindsided by issues they have no information on.

“As long as they call and say like, ‘Hey I want to talk about overhanging trees next to my property,'” Newhart said. “That way it gives us time to research it so we’re not hit blindsided and we’ll be able to answer it.

“The change is just to be more informed, it’s not to hinder the citizens.”

Newhart believes the policy change will result in council being able to better assist the residents of Shadyside.

Council member Melanie Haswell agreed.

“It’s not that we’re pushing people away, anybody is welcomed,” she said. “But if it’s for something that questions need answered or ordinances need to be found, then we’ll need a heads up.”

She added that with the upswing in Shadyside residents attending council meetings and having questions that need more in-depth answers that council members want to be better prepared. Listing speakers and topics on the agenda will enable members to have the information to adequately answer the residents’ questions.

She noted a question that was asked by a resident at a recent meeting required looking into an ordinance that was over 10 years old.

“If you want to come and say something, nobody is going to shoo anybody away from a meeting, we welcome anybody, we just need a heads up,” Haswell added.