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It's not a political party.

Its members are not anti-growth, contrary to some people's perceptions. In fact, Citizens First has developers on its nearly 1,000-member mailing list, according to group spokesman John Browder.

Yes, the plan to build a gravity sewer in the Toms Creek basin galvanized them. But no, they don't all agree on what is the right side of every issue that comes before Blacksburg Town Council.

The core group of about 20 don't even always agree on what kind of organization Citizens First, which is registered with the state as a political action committee, should be.

But just because town council voted down the sewer plan last year, the group is not going away, members say.

"I call the sewer the subject," Chuck Rogol, a Citizens First member who helped file a lawsuit against the town to stop the sewer project, said during a group interview last month.

But it wasn't the ultimate goal.

For Rogol and others, it was about electing a council that would listen to residents' concerns and act on them.

It was, and still is, about knowing what town government is doing -- how it chooses people to serve on boards and committees and what projects council members are considering for public property, such as the old Blacksburg Middle School.

Citizens First was Blacksburg's motto until six years ago, when officials dropped it in favor of "16 squares," an allusion to the town's historic district.

The move was meant to signal to retailers and developers that Blacksburg planned to make it easier to do business in town as part of plan to stem the mass retail exodus that began in the 1980s.

But last May, Citizens First came raging back to life as a loosely organized coalition of environmentalists and open-government advocates determined to thwart what members saw as potential overdevelopment, especially in the mostly rural Toms Creek Basin.

The group orchestrated the largest voter turnout for a town council election in more than a decade.

Citizens First helped unseat longtime incumbent Frances Parsons, who supported the plan to build a multimillion-dollar gravity sewer in the basin.

The group raised nearly $5,000 to buy ads, leaflets and buttons supporting three anti-sewer candidates -- Don Langrehr, Paul Lancaster and two-term incumbent Ron Rordam -- who won their seats in a landslide.

And, to the delight of the group, council voted to scuttle the sewer plan at the 11th hour.

The day after the election, "You could feel it in the town," Citizens First member Jane Goette said.

"It was festive," group spokesman John Browder added. "It was an important day for all the citizens."

Since then, the group has seen the new council tackle its election-year goals, including a vote last winter to reaffirm the town charter's rules on issuing bonds, a controversial issue during the sewer debate.

And the group has watched as council has appointed a handful of Citizens First supporters to key boards and commissions, including two new planning commissioners.

"Speaking for myself, I feel a sense of empowerment," Lydia Marek, another group member, said in April.

Now the group is looking for candidates to support in 2006.

Mayor Roger Hedgepeth, often a target for the group's criticism, said Tuesday that it's unlikely he will run again for mayor.

"But if I did, I like to think some of the members of Citizens First might vote for me. If I earned it."

Hedgepeth said he knows a lot of the members and doesn't disagree with them on all their issues.

"But the sewer became the lightning-rod issue," he said.

Questions remain about the group's long-term viability, given the diverse views of its members, many of whom were drawn from other groups such as the Blacksburg Natural Heritage Foundation, the Toms Creek Vision Group, the Montgomery County League of Women Voters and others.

"There's always that worry" that the group might splinter, said Citizens First treasurer Lucy Goldberg.. "But our power as a group is in staying together, even if people have diverse points of view."