The Petersburg Borough wants to hear ideas from the community that could save the public money, and it’s offering a stage without an assembly meeting tone.

“I hear from people all the time that this meeting scares people,” said Steve Giesbrecht, the borough manager, speaking at an assembly meeting. “They don’t want to come and talk because it’s very formal, so I am going to try to go the other way with this.”

Giesbrecht is referring to his proposal to host a series of public open houses, or gatherings, which he said could facilitate information from the community on ways to...