West Vincent Township can't afford to go back to the "old days"
You as a voter get one chance to make it right. Do you really want to elect someone that misleads you time and time again?
All the information in this website is backed with various documentation from the township, courts, newspaper references and other reliable sources using accurate reference material.
Ken Miller controls the operations of the Roads Department and influences the other Supervisors to allow him to do what he wants. This includes working the angles to make sure his friend DL Fleck get contracts in West Vincent Township. This involves the disregard for State laws for bonds plus an obvious lien from the Commonwealth of PA and a poor credit rating which eventually leads DL Fleck into bankruptcy. No matter the history, there is certainly a reason that Miller pushes to get Fleck hired, which can be speculated.
Here are a few pictures of Ken Miller's road shoulders and unprotected holes:
ROADS
LOCATION: Corner of Hollow Rd and Horseshoe Trail. Where was the truck going? To Roadmaster Ken MIller's big construction project cheese cave. This truck is full of wet concrete. One wheel off the road and it's all over in West Vincent! When did this happen? May 4, 2015
LOCATION: Directly across the street from Ken Miller's farm. Roadmaster Ken Miller was called out on this drainage hole (3-4 feet deep) in a website called ProjectMoo (6 years ago) and nothing was done. No gaurdrail, nothing. Luckily, the victim is Ken Miller's milk truck. The truck would have gone further in but the truck frame stopped it. There was contamination from either a ruptured fuel tank or oil pan. Imagine if a car had gone in? The hole is still unprotected. Thank you, Roadmaster Ken! January 8, 2011
Snow Plow Bidding
The bid is out for snow removal for this winter but I cannot understand a few things about this bid contract….....
Why does the Township require that the successful bidder bid on ALL the equipment?
The township could possibly save some money by splitting the work to be done amongst several contractors. Last year the township had to hire additional contractors help for snow removal and the roads were cleared in a good time. Why not make this part of the initial plan? In past years the township snow clearance was split up between several contractors. Read More......
Custom Tailored Bid for one Specific Contractor
West Vincent Township is currently advertising bids for performing road maintenance for the year. Every year, the bids are awarded to DL Fleck. Why? Because the bids are written in such a way that DL Fleck has a distinct advantage. For example, the bid is written listing EXACTLY what equipment is required (Page 3 on the following link), which happens to be exactly the equipment that DL Fleck uses. The only way the requirements could become more specific is if the township listed what serial numbers they required the equipment to have. It makes it impossible....Read more.....
More on Bid Rigging
In case you missed it last time I wrote to you, here, below, is the required equipment needed to bid for the town road maintenance contract. Is it coincidence that it specifies the exact equipment that DL Fleck has available? For example it specifies that the "4x4 Ext. Hoe" must be a John Deere. Why a John Deere? Why does the roller have to be an Ingersoll Rand? There are plenty of other manufacturers that make this equipment, but owning that equipment would not meet the exact bid specifications. Looks to me like bid rigging....Read more.....
Execution Sale for DL Fleck, the winning Roads contract bidder
In one of my last e-mails, I showed how the contractor that does the township road maintenance is due to have an Execution Sale (otherwise known as a Sheriff Sale by many). In this sale is the very equipment that he is required to possess in order to fulfill the current for bid road maintenance. Perhaps DL Fleck is not bidding, but I doubt it since....Read more....
DL Fleck Defaults again, operates illegally
In the last e-mail, I gave examples of over $100,000 in Judgments against DL Fleck, owner of D & L Construction. I actually missed one. American Express for $6351.00. It was just posted in August and is a very recent default. Links are here 011, 012, and 013. Interestingly, there is more to the operation than just the defaults.
There is an issue that this business location was found to be an illegal use on the West Vincent Property ....Read more...
Chester County Courts Ban Roads Contractor from Operating
at Residential Location, West Vincent Ignores the Order
In the last e-mail, I showed where DL Fleck, now D & L Construction, had an illegal commercial operation in in a residential neighborhood. So illegal, in fact, the Chester County courts ruled on the issue. Therefore, it was to be removed from the location immediately. West Vincent Township has been hiring DL Fleck to do road work for the Township for several years. Now, D & L Construction (the same people as DL Fleck) was awarded the latest Road Maintenance contract. Maybe, you might think, the Supervisors don't realize this is an illegal commercial operation? Read more.....
Court Decision against West Vincent Roads Contractor
In my last submission, I spoke of the Court Order from Chester County that was "supposed" to remove Fleck's operation from St Matthews Rd. I included the Motion for Summary Judgment in that e-mail. Today, I attach the Decision from the Appeal from July 1, 2002. In fact, on Page 4 of this decision, the Court found DL Fleck to be in contempt Quoting the document, it says "determined that the Flecks are, indeed, in contempt of our Order and its mandate that the property be used only for those uses permitted by the residential zoning regulations applicable thereto." They were in contempt at the time and have continued the same practice until this very moment and time, which would be for over a DECADE! The township has never enforced this decision,.....Read more....
Road Department Cost Overruns
Recently, I spoke about the payments made to D&L Construction (formerly DL Fleck, which operates in an illegal location in the township against a court order but unenforced by the township) for roadwork since awarded the contract back on July 25, 2011. Now let's examine the other costs, such as materials, engineering, etc.
Materials (and rental) since the contract was awarded to DL Construction: $279,154.25
Total Paid to DL Construction: $157,092.75
ADD TO THE CONTRACT ROAD COSTS
Charges for engineering from Carroll Engineering: $11795.88
Material, engineering and permit fees (2011 pre-contract): $31938.12
For a grand total of: $479,981
This is your tax money. This is the equivalent cost of about $420.50 for a family of four in West Vincent Township.
ALMOST HALF A MILLION DOLLARS but this is not the total cost yet! Read more...
Illegal No-Bid Purchases
Now that I have broken down what the road work is costing the township, what does it mean to you, the resident? As I stated before, a family of four has paid $420.50 for the first 6 months of this road contract. This is for local country roads, not some highway project.
Here is something interesting that I noticed after posting the road work costs e-mail. When working on any project where a contract is going to exceed $10,000, the contract has to be put out for bid. For example, the township draws up plans to work on Fellowship road. The engineer designs the drainage system, writes the specs for the pipes, culverts and anything else that would be needed to do the job. If the materials exceed $4,000 in value, the Roadmaster would get phone prices from several sources. If the number was over $10,000, he would then put the materials out for bid, the same as would be done for a new tractor for the park. The lowest bidding supplier would be awarded the contract. The following contractors were paid over $10,000 for materials supplied but there was never any bid process: Read more...
West Vincent Roads Contractor Foreclosed on
A while back, I spoke about DL Construction (formerly DL Fleck) which is located within the township and operates from an illegal location on St Matthews road. Anyone can see it driving by, a commercial industrial site in a residential neighborhood. The Chester County courts ruled that the operation had to cease but Ken Miller and cronies allow it to go on in violation of the court ruling.
DL Construction has been favored with Ken Miller and has had to post little or no bonds for his work in the township. For the Roadwork bid that he won, he was required to post a 10% bond which Ken Miller, Roadmaster and Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said would be $10,000 (for $100,000 maximum amount of work). DL Fleck has billed around $150,000 in the last 6 months of work, but the bond has not been increased. Now it will be even more, read below.
Recently, the Fleck property was foreclosed on by New Century Bank, owing them $1,097,918.13. Read that number out loud: ONE MILLION, NINETY SEVEN THOUSAND, NINE HUNDRED EIGHTEEN DOLLARS AND THIRTEEN CENTS. Read more...
Road Bids hidden from Public View
Now that West Vincent is fat and happy on borrowed money (remember the re-finance on the bond), they have almost a million dollars to spend. True to Chairman of the Board of Supervisors and Roadmaster Ken Miller's word, an advertisement for the Road Projects bid has been placed. You can't see it. You are not allowed to. The public at large can't see it. There is no trace of the announcement in a newspaper that I have been able to find. The advertisement is mysteriously not posted on the township website as previous ads have been.
Where is this hidden advertisement for perhaps a half a million dollars worth of road work, you may ask? It is listed in a place called Pennbid.net. What is Pennbid.net? Pennbid.net is now a legal way for municipalities to advertise contracts to contractors. The Pennsylvania Legislature recently changed the rules for advertising requirements for municipalities. Now public bid announcements are not required to be in complete print form, which is a tremendous cost to the governmental entity. Instead, now the full postings can be performed via the Internet.
The downside to this advertising (an upside to West Vincent Township) is that the average citizen, you and I, cannot view the bid package...Read more....
Paving a Road the Residents don't want paved
It seems there was a "private meeting" between township representatives and the Hilltop Road residents on August 14 about road 'improvements' estimated to cost over $100,000.
I discover that no surveying, engineering, or professional planning has been done. It seems, judging by the sign, that the residents don't actually want the road improvements. They don't want the bottom part of Hilltop widened and paved.
So I leave you, my dear reader, to ponder over the question over who might benefit from this road improvement scheme? Could it be something to do with money and not to do with local benefits? Could it just be that a local contractor needs the work and a certain local farmer might benefit indirectly? Answers on a postcard please, and there are no prizes. Read more...
Bankrupt and no credit, DL Fleck is awarded the Snowplow Bid
Good News! Ken Miller's friend DL Fleck, operating as D&L Construction was once again the only operation to bid on the snow plowing contract. You remember DL Fleck? He gets all of the roadwork and snowplowing work in West Vincent and used to operate out of an illegal (by court order but never enforced by the township) location on St Matthews Rd until the bank repossessed the property. Why does nobody else bid, so many years in a row? Are contractors afraid to bid against Ken Miller's friend because their equipment has to pass.....Read more.....
Ken Miller and his Roads Department trespass, settle suit for $200,000
I was intrigued. According to the minutes, in addition to the insurance company that protects West Vincent Township making a payment of $165,000 to resident Carl Masarra for the Road Crew doing damage to his property, you, the taxpayer also shelled out an additional $35,000. That would be almost $8 per person for every man, woman and child that resides in West Vincent Township. This was not a court decision, this was a settlement. Most likely, this settlement was to keep this suit from landing in front of a jury and having a potentially much higher award. Read more....
UPDATE
Ken Miller claims on his website:
"It is my opinion that the township engineer carries the bulk of the responsibility for this error, and I tried to persuade the other two supervisors to pursue a claim with the engineering company. They declined to do so, preferring to settle the suit in order to limit the possible downside exposure of the township to further legal fees and other costs."
If this is true, the Engineer was never included in the lawsuit and should have been from the beginning. You would think that the township would have made sure that the Engineer would have to shoulder the burden if his engineering is defect. That is the point of involving an Engineer, if there is a problem, it protects the taxpayers by proving the work was engineered by a professional. As far as asking the other Supervisors, I recommend the voter ask David Brown and John Jacobs to confirm this conversation. This certainly doesn't pass any smell test.
Salt Dumped on Flowing Springs Road
The hundreds of pounds of salt dumped on Flowing Springs Road (a township road) on January 21st starts at the Birchrun Cafe just uphill from the coveted Birchrun, crosses the creek and proceeds up the opposing hill. All the runoff from that saltwater would go directly into that creek, which is valiantly protected by so many in Birchrunville. I have even written....Read more......
