Residents will be able to make comments at Niles Village Board meetings without waiting until the end of the meeting.

Mayor Robert Callero introduced a new format at the Feb. 23 meeting.

“We’d like to ask people who want to comment on agenda items to register with the clerk when you come in,” he said.

The village clerk, Marlene Victorine, sits at a station near the entrance to the board meeting room during meetings.

The Village of Niles surveyed 40 other suburban municipalities, Callero said, and found that three do not provide for public comments, six allow comments at the end of board meetings and the rest have a mixture of comments at the beginning of and during meetings.

If a resident wishes to comment on a topic that is not on a meeting agenda, the board will hear that comment at the end of the meeting, Callero said.

He cautioned that when residents speak during the meetings, they should not try to debate or argue with trustees, but make their comment as a statement.

Resident Rosemary Palicki, a frequent attendee of village board meetings, became the first person to take advantage of the new procedure. She asked a financial question of Finance Director Scot Neukirch, who answered it.

Palicki had asked at an earlier village board meeting for public comments to be heard before the end of the meetings, which usually wrap up between 9 and 9:30 p.m.

After hearing Callero announce the new procedure, Palicki said it was an improvement, but wondered aloud how she would know in advance whether to register to comment on an agenda item.

“How will I know whether I want to comment until I’ve heard what the board has to say about it?” she asked.