DALEVILLE -- A majority of the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors perceives that its monthly daytime meetings -- regular business is conducted at 9 a.m., with public hearings at 1:30 p.m. -- occur at an inconvenient time for the general working population to attend.

So the board plans to vote during next month's meeting on a plan to conduct public hearings in the evening, possibly starting at 6 p.m.

Three of the board's five supervisors agreed during Tuesday's monthly meeting at the Greenfield Education and Training Center that true open government dictates that evening hours would better cater to county residents.

"We need to be available to the public," Blue Ridge Supervisor Billy Martin said.

Supervisors acknowledged, however, the slim chance of routinely attracting a large audience to any government meeting.

"I'm not delusional ... that we're going to get a ton of people," Valley Supervisor Don Assaid said. "But at least we're making the effort."

Unless residents speak out against the proposal, Assaid and Martin, along with Amsterdam Supervisor Steve Clinton, represent a board majority and appear poised to vote in favor of holding evening meetings.

Botetourt County Administrator Jerry Burgess suggested to the board Tuesday that if a change is desired, that routine business matters could be taken up at 2 p.m., and public hearings could start at 6 p.m.

That would fall in line with the county's school board, which meets twice a month at 5:30 p.m., and the county's planning commission, which meets monthly at 6 p.m.

Buchanan Supervisor Terry Austin and Fincastle Supervisor Don Meredith aren't convinced that meeting at a different time will draw more than the handful of people typically in attendance at current board meetings. They said meetings that focus on controversial issues will be well attended no matter what time of day they're held.

"I don't think people are going to attend any more in the evenings than in the mornings," said Austin, adding that board members and county staff are more alert during the day. "We get business done in an efficient manner."

Meredith said people are reluctant to drive on the county's rural roads after dark and in inclement weather, and that the county has a range of elderly residents who simply won't go out at night to a meeting.

"People are just absolutely not going to come out during the night," he said. "I'm all for keeping it the same."

Burgess cautioned the board that if it does approve a new meeting time, that it wait until the beginning of the year and choose a starting time early enough in the evening so that meetings don't run too late.

"Some of the worst decisions I've ever seen in my life happened after 10 o'clock at night," he said.