Problems at the troubled DeKalb Center complex are not over.

City officials are warning Joseph Navilio, owner of the 1100 W. Lincoln Hwy. apartment complex, to pay up the money he owes the city before they pull his license to operate a rooming house.

Navilio owes the city $6,057.70 for police protection, fire watch, elevator fees and other small fees. City Attorney Ronald Matekaitis has set up a payment schedule for four payments of $1,514.43 (one is two cents less). The first payment was due Sept. 1, with the remaining payments coming due on the first day of the next three months.

If Navilio fails to make the payments, he will be blocked from hiring security officers for the apartments and will lose his rooming house license.

Matekaitis could not be reached for comment.

The apartment complex became a center of controversy last fall when angered tenants demanded to be freed from their leases. The tenants contended living conditions were substandard. At the time, however, the complex was put under new managment.

According to the office of DeKalb Building and Community Services, which enforces building codes, DeKalb Center violated 104 codes last fall. The city planned to assume ownership of the complex, but Navilio kept the rights in court.

Bill Nicklas, DeKalb Building and Community Services director, notified Navilio Aug. 16 that in addition to the reimbursements due, Navilio needs to repair a connection between the facility’s roof drains and sewer system and “maintain the premises in a manner which consistently poses no threat to the health of its residents.”

Navilio also was required to appear at an Aug. 27 hearing to determine whether a cause exists for revoking his rooming house license. The hearing was continued for 30 days, during which time Navilio is expected to clear up a list of code violations outlined by the city, Nicklas said.

So far, Nicklas said, a plumber fixed the faulty connnection one hour before the hearing began. But the maintainence violation remains unsolved, compounded by construction on West Lincoln Highway.

There’s no place for refuse from the complex—which has trash chutes on each floor leading to a garbage room in the lower levels—to be put outside, Nicklas said.

Until then, complex management is encouraging tenants to carry their garbage downstairs instead of using the chutes. However, Nicklas said, many are just depositing the garbage in the hallways. Improper disposal has caused a roach infestion, he said.

But, he said, the ultimate responsibility of maintaining the premises still lies with Navilio.