Harold Newton wanted to paint the outside of his downtown Greenville business this year but said he won't be able to, in part, because he was blind-sided by borough council members.

Newton -- owner of H&R Block and Newton Financial Services, at the corner of Main and Mercer streets -- had requested four variances to the borough's sign ordinance so he could make improvements to his building.

Without the variances, the improvements would violate the borough's 17-year-old sign ordinance.

The borough's Code Board of Appeals, which heard Newton's case Wednesday night, granted him two of the variances but postponed a vote on the others for 90 days.

The tabled requests related to Newton's proposal to put 24 4-by-4 signs advertising other businesses on the east side of his building. Newton wanted to sell the signs to interested business owners and then use the money generated to paint his building.

Newton said he called all eight council members and owners of adjacent businesses in June to see whether they would support the plan. Newton said none of the neighboring business owners had a problem with the plan -- four wrote letters that Newton submitted to the appeals board Wednesday. And council also seemed receptive to the idea, he added.

"I talked with five of the council members and they all appeared to be in favor of it then. Since then, they apparently changed their minds," Newton said.

"I never heard from any of them. No one came to me with any questions or concerns. So I thought I still had their support. Had I known 2è weeks ago that they had changed their minds I wouldn't have spent $150 for the hearing," Newton added. "It was totally inconsiderate. I got blind-sided big time."

Council President Richard Houpt, one of the council members contacted in June, said, "Between June and now, we discussed the idea several times and it began to look as though there were a lot of questions that were unanswered and that support of the idea had lost steam."

Houpt said the borough's planning commission is completing a new sign ordinance that council could approve within the next couple of months. Waiting seemed prudent, he said.

"One of the variances requested wouldn't be a violation in the new ordinance," he said.

Of the variances granted to Newton, the first allows him to put an 18-square-foot projecting H&R Block sign outside of his business; the ordinance limits such signs to 12 square feet. The second allows him to hang two signs for his businesses in front of the building that would be slightly larger than the ordinance allows.