Scoreboard at center of nasty dispute in Leominster

A little league scoreboard is at the center of a dispute over land in Leominster.

Mayor Dean Mazzerella bought the land located next to Leominster's Little League fields in the 1980's. He has allowed the league to use some of the land, but now he is building homes for his children and needs the league's scoreboard moved for insurance reasons.

League officials tell FOX 25 the scoreboard is a memorial to PFC Jonathan Roberge. It was built in 2009 after Roberge was killed while serving in Iraq.

Little League president Rob Lora says he promised Mazzerella's lawyer he'd remove the sign and some debris, but was allegedly told no work would begin until May. He says just days after he was told that, construction began and an access road he needed to reach the sign was destroyed. Mazzerella says the sign can be accessed by using another road.

The mayor thinks he has been more than fair.

"If anyone else put a sign on someone else's property or if they put a fence or trash, they would've been calling for an inquest and investigation if I did that on their property," says Mazzerella, "Here I am, arguing with people about my property."

The league says this isn't the first time they've had an issue with the land. They say that around three years ago, Mazzerella took down a fence and took away a part of the field allegedly without anyone knowing.

League officials claim they asked for the city to survey the land to find where the mayor's property ends, but that never happened.

Mayor Mazzerella tells FOX 25 the fields were leased to the baseball league for one year. He has scheduled a meeting on May 18 with the Department of Recreation to discuss the situation further.

Cox Media Group