Council STOPS spending of $147,000 grant (tax payer $)

Monday nights boro council meeting brought up concerns regarding possible illegal actions of the Beautification committee headed by Joyce Phillips. With no experience in grant procedures councilwomen Phillips carelessly spent thousands of taxpayer dollars without advertising for bids from local business owners. This money may now have to be paid back which should come directly from Phillips checkbook not the taxpayers. Warned by councilman Dave Rohrbach about the right way things are to be done, Phillips opted to forgo expert advice and proceed on her own with a few uneducated residents on the committee. Rohrbach quit the committee and he and Randy Gartner showed disappointment in how Phillips handled most everything but mostly the town clock that she has a $13,000 deposit on.  Placement of a clock had been decided when the HP Memorial Park was built but Phillips is trying to change that plan. This behavior is the norm for Phillips who has a long history of personal vendettas with town people in which she has used her council position to threaten individuals and cause unecessary problems. The issues she has with Dave Randler seem to have started with a Christmas contest she held and expected Randler to supply FREE prizes for.  He refused. In the past the Christmas and landscaping contests were run by Randler and the Our Robesonia.  We worked together. Phillips assumed Randler would just give her all the prizes. With that and feeling she was eliminated from the Christmas Trail celebration she has been accused of spreading vicious rumors about Randler and has told people not to shop at businesses in the Randler complex.  Here are some of the numbers and items:  20 flower pots, flowers ($8,400), 46 Gateway, Holiday, & or Patriotic Banners, 2 streetline wreaths (21,408 + shipping), 1152 small flags ($438) 3 sided post and signs trash receptacles ($8769), 8 benches abd bases ($8171) 2 bus shelters and bases ($16,241), Christmas LED lights & decor ($7762), base for clock ($1668), electric and conduit for clock ($1750) Randy Gartner already placed this behind the wall, and the clock (25,639).  All were purchased by the committee from businesses or given to contractors from everywhere but here in our own town. Nothing was put out for bids and most items could have been purchased right here keeping our tax dollars in Robesonia, avoiding shipping costs ($544 to date). Phillips who claims to care so much about this town has little to no respect for the other businesses that are here. All of the complaints could have easily been avoided if the opportunity would have been offered to Quality Signs, DP Randler (could have saved boro $2600 on the pots).  Grosiflex may have even donated all 20 flower pots but due to the mission of the committee to avoid Robesonia businesses not one member of the committee bothered to ask or include their own towns people. There is also a witness to Phillips using her council seat to threaten a man with arrest who parks in front of her daughters store. He is to attend the next council meeting. I personally spoke to several businesses the day they received pots and not one was told they were to maintain it (water, mow and or trim around it, keeping it neat).  They all assumed the boro was doing maintenance. Phillips claims all those who got pots were aware of the taking care of them.  Not one person I talked to heard from any council or committee person.  Phillips told Randler he could have called her and asked to bid on the flower pots.  Sorry Joyce, the bidding process doesn't work like that. How council left Phillips run this train so far off track I cannot figure out. I asked at the meeting and got no response from any council member. Randler asked that council remove Phillips from her council seat due to unethical behavior and the potential for once again causing the boro unnecessary legal issues. A local contractor put 22 hours into bidding and preparing proposals for the cement work for the benches and bus stops. Phillips does not have him listed on the budget to do the work. Oh yeah, he is from Robesonia and was an easy target for FREE advice. All $147,000 was outsourced. Robesonia residents should be outraged that someone with so little education was appointed and given control of this project. If Robesonia is going to keep our businesess and bring in new ones we ALL need to support them!