Clear Channel says billboards in Revere have been spruced up

REVERE - A Clear Channel sign company representative said local billboards criticized by the City Council for their dilapidated appearance were damaged in an early spring rainstorm.

Company spokeswoman Lois Catanzaro said paper advertising signs plastered on a dozen and a half billboards the company maintains were damaged by driving drain and heavy winds.

"We've since corrected the problem," she said.

Ward 4 Councilor George Rotondo complained in May about the appearance of Clear Channel signs including one on the northbound side of North Shore Road. The sign had not been repaired as of June 4 - two weeks after Rotondo leveled his criticism.

His remarks prompted colleagues to initially approve a proposal requiring billboard owners to repair within five days any billboard "with noted cuts, flaking, peeling or other noted physical defects." The proposal prescribed a $100 to $300 fine for failure to repair billboards.

"We need to send a strong message to absentee billboard owners," Rotondo said.

Clear Channel is not the first sign company to find itself the target of council criticism, but it has been a major target of billboard critics.

The Council last October denied Clear Channel's plan to build an 85 foot-tall billboard on Squire Road, prompting property owner Dante Spadoni to apologize to neighboring residents.

"I guess I wouldn't want it outside my house either," the Everett resident said.

Clear Channel, which has its Massachusetts office in Stoneham, wanted to put its sign near the intersection of Squire Road and Route 107, one of the busiest intersections in the city.

Councilor at Large George Colella took aim at billboard owner Mediavision in 2006 when the company proposed installing two signs on the Revere-Boston border.

His colleagues voted to approve the 23-foot by 48-foot signs on either side of Route 1A but not before Colella branded Revere "the billboard capital of Eastern Massachusetts."