Greenville's former treasurer laid blame for the borough's fiscal problems squarely on the shoulders of former Borough Manager Peter D. Nicoloff Jr., who has been out of town since shortly after details of the borough's fiscal collapse began surfacing in January.

"There are lot of questions about the borough's finances. That man (Nicoloff) is the one who needs to be here to answer them," Linda Crisman said during a public hearing on the Act 47 program for distressed communities Monday in Greenville.

Ms. Crisman, who was elected tax collector in November, was one of 10 people who gave sworn statements at the public hearing. Her comments provided perhaps the most insight into how the borough got in its dire financial straits.

Past mismanagement and misuse of public money are the roots of fiscal problems facing Greenville, according to a report by the state Governor's Center for Local Government Services, which investigated borough finances for about a month to determine whether it should be considered for the Act 47 program.

The borough has a general fund deficit of more than $1 million and has misspent close to $1 million of a $3.67 million bond issue reserved for borough projects and $325,000 of its nonresident wage-tax fund.

"The bond funds were drawn down strictly by the former borough manager (Nicoloff) without my approval," Ms. Crisman said.

"It was always him. He had total control of the money. Whenever there was a shortage of funds he would just authorize an advance. I told him he couldn't keep drawing from the bond or nonresident wage-tax funds," Ms. Crisman added.

She also said Nicoloff withheld financial reports from council members and trimmed the budget-making process from a two- to three-month undertaking to one that lasted two or three days.

Current Borough Manager Kenneth Weaver, who took the helm in January, described the borough's paycheck-to-paycheck existence.

"We would have had payless paydays if we did not use money from the bond this year," said current Borough Manager Kenneth S. Weaver said.

"Our financial planning has been: Let's make it through the month," Weaver added. "We had to balance the budget with the bond and then use it this year to cover payroll and other bills because they were the only funds available to us," Weaver said.

"We have about $75,000 in outstanding bills," Weaver said.

When asked if the borough planned to conduct a more specific audit to see if any bond money was used illegally, Weaver said, "We'd like to, but we'd need money to do that."

Nicoloff has been unavailable for comment for nearly three months. A phone at his former Greenville home has been disconnected and no forwarding number was given.