.htaccess question

I have my codeigniter 3.0.6 project structure like

Code:

www >

www > codeigniter

www > codeigniter > application

www > codeigniter > public

www > codeigniter > public > index.php

Question 1: Where should I put my htaccess? In the public?


Question 2: Currently I have to type in http://localhost/codeigniter/public/ to get to the home page On my htaccess is there away to be able to have it point to this http://localhost/codeigniter/

PHP Code:

Options +FollowSymLinks
Options -Indexes
DirectoryIndex index.php
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /codeigniter/public
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|images|robots\.txt)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L,QSA] 


There's only one rule - please don't tell anyone to go and read the manual.  Sometimes the manual just SUCKS!