By Thor Jourgensen/The Daily Item

REVERE - Ward 4 City Councilor George Rotondo is confident city officials will not allow a formerly roach-infested Park Avenue house to be reoccupied until the owner’s attorney pays the city $50,000 to cover clean up costs.

Steven DiCarlo told councilors on Monday that he is preparing to reimburse the city as first step toward obtaining an occupancy permit for 565 Park Avenue.

Rotondo said the city should have the money in hand before it allows tenants to move into the multi-family house.

“They won’t get a thing until they pay up,” he said.

A1 Exterminators and Trauma Clean of Peabody spent weeks decontaminating the house after city officials cited the property for health code violations on Nov. 2.

Neighbors claimed they were finding the bugs around their homes after published reports stated that tenant Andrea Watson had thrown roach-infested possessions out of her apartment windows.

Rotondo brought concerned neighbors before the council days after the city cited the property to discuss the infestation.

Watson, cofounder of Parents for Residential Reform, a child rights advocacy organization, moved out of Revere in November. The roach problem forced the building’s first floor tenant to move with her children into a motel.

Rotondo and ward residents worked with city officials to help the tenant find new housing and provided her with other assistance.

“Community pressure was the big issue here,” he said.

City Inspectional Services Director Nicholas Catinazzo earlier this month said the city will not approve an occupancy permit for the house until city and state health inspectors declare it free of roaches and cleanup expenses incurred by the city are settled.

Those costs include extermination work required to ensure six neighboring homes are bug free.

Exterminators have been checking and, if necessary, cleaning 565 Park in the wake of the initial extermination.

The two-family apartment building is owned by the estate of Sylvia Abbate, who died in February 2001.

Property tax bills are current and paid by DiCarlo, who lists Lowe Street as his address.