CHRISTIANSBURG -- Town officials this month started posting notice of government meetings on the second floor of town hall. But if you want to find them, you'll have to do some looking.

They're posted near the elevator next to a large tropical plant.

That doesn't exactly suit Christiansburg businesswoman Tacy Newell-Foutz. She questions whether the posting place really follows the spirit of the law.

"Public notice is a place that the public will be," she said. "Not just in town facilities."

Some residents come to the town hall at 100 E. Main St. to pay bills or obtain licenses. Town Manager Lance Terpenny said his office will not post notices in other town buildings.

On Friday on the board next to the plant, dates and times of regular council and street committee meetings, as well as a May 5 planning commission meeting, were posted. Notice wasn't given for Tuesday's finance committee meeting -- Terpenny e-mailed notice of that meeting to The Roanoke Times on Monday. Terpenny said earlier in the week that he was still waiting for confirmation from Mayor Richard Ballengee regarding the meeting.

The Freedom of Information Act stipulates that notice of all public meetings be posted at least three working days prior to the meeting. It requires that "every public body shall give notice of the date, time and location of its meetings by placing the notice in a prominent public location at which notices are regularly posted and in the office of the clerk of the public body, or in the case of a public body that has no clerk, in the office of the chief administrator."

The Roanoke Times raised concerns about the town's interpretation of the state's edict protecting open government on April 3 after learning the town council's finance committee met two weeks earlier without giving public notice -- a practice that has been routine for many years. Since then, the issue has become a hot topic in the upcoming town council election.

Questions, however, still remain as to how administrators plan to adhere to the law.

Henry Showalter, a 37-year-old first-time contender for one of three council seats on the May ballot, has said the town should be held responsible for violating FOIA mandates and "should open up immediately" regarding access to meetings and records.

Ballengee announced at the April 15 council meeting that a training session is planned June 3 to acquaint town administrators and council with the law. He said the session, set to begin after the regular council meeting is finished, is open to the public.

But some residents want to know what is being done now to make sure that the public is aware of meetings addressing such issues as the upcoming budget proposal for fiscal year 2008-09. Budget planning is currently under way.

Council clerk Michele Stipes said Wednesday that she had not been instructed yet to send any meeting notices other than agendas for regular council meetings. Stipes typically sends notices to 34 people on her e-mail contact list. She said she has had no additional requests for notification via e-mail. She also sends some notices through the mail and by fax.

Carol Lindstrom, a Cambria businesswoman, said she is on lists to receive e-mail notices for council and planning commission meetings. She has not received notice of the upcoming finance committee meeting.

Lindstrom said she doesn't understand why public meeting notices aren't simply posted on the town's Web site.

"The governor's office has encouraged every local government to use electronic notification," she said. "They [Christiansburg officials] already have a Web site that they're not using."

On both Blacksburg and Montgomery County's Web sites, there are calendars listing public meetings, as well as electronic versions of documents pertaining to the public interest.

Terpenny said the town is now in the process of narrowing the search for a company to design and implement a new Web site. The current Web site, he said, is idle.

"I don't think there's anybody doing the Web site now," he said. "We backed off until we award a new contract."

Terpenny said he had not received a lot of public comment over the FOIA issue. But a few residents -- including Newell-Foutz and Lindstrom -- are leading efforts to kindle interest and stimulate debate over town government and how it addresses the law.

Both women operate Internet blogs that have drawn comment from residents and council members. Newell-Foutz, along with Terry Ellen Carter, posts a blog at thinkchristiansburg.com, while Lindstrom posts at www.DepotDazed.com.

Lindstrom also has inundated the town recently with written FOIA requests for records, including the 2008 proposed budget and minutes of all meetings concerning the budget. She asked for and received copies of the town code -- a document unavailable on the town's Web site -- and paid $88.40 for the stack of pages at a cost of 10 cents per sheet.

Lindstrom said she is not doing this to annoy the town but to be knowledgeable when it comes to public business.

"The fact is, information should be available," she said. "We are giving our government officials a power, but they need to use it rightly."

Newell-Foutz, who served on the Montgomery County School Board from 2000 to 2005, said she is concerned that the town makes it hard for residents to understand how their government works and how they can become involved in the process.

"Even as someone who has been an elected official schooled in FOIA requirements and having worked in local government, learning about Christiansburg and its public meetings or records is very fragmented," she said. "None of this is intuitive to the public, and nowhere has the town's processes or procedures been communicated to the public."

Lindstrom suspects the June 3 FOIA training session will not draw much public interest because of its timing.

"How many people are going to come sit through a town council meeting for the FOIA session?" she asked.

"These are servants of the people, and they should remember that," she said of the town administration and council. "We should expect our public officials to go above the minimum."

Carol Underwood, a 33-year-old Christiansburg resident, said she does not attend the town's public meetings because "I feel like a lot of times, it's just talk. They're going to end up doing what they want anyway."

Underwood said she thinks the town should post meetings and other information on the town's Web site, because the Internet is the current go-to source of information.

"I understand that they have to pay someone to maintain it," she said, "but it's not that much extra effort."