SCRANTON — The owner of a billboard at 320 Mulberry St. in downtown Scranton is suing the owner of the property next to the two-sided structure for electrical access needed to convert the static signs to digital displays.

In a lawsuit filed April 21 in Lackawanna County Court, the owner of the billboard structure, Kegerreis Outdoor Advertising LLC of Chambersburg, claims the property owner, 317 Linden Apartments LLC of Scranton, which is a firm of developer Don Mammano, is blocking access to electricity required to power two digital billboards on the sign structure.

The billboard’s two signs in a back-to-back V shape mounted on a single pole face in both directions along busy Mulberry Street. The signs previously contained “static” advertisements and Kegerreis wants to convert them to digital signs.

The lawsuit contends the billboard sign structure has had easements on the property of the 317 Linden building for the billboard owner to “install, maintain, repair and replace, above and below ground, electrical connections as needed for the billboard”; and the easements go back before Mammano bought the building in 2013. Kegerreis bought the billboard structure in December 2024 and the easement rights came with that purchase, the lawsuit claims.

“Linden has refused to allow access to the property for the purpose of PPL’s installation of the necessary electrical connections to power the digital faces to be installed on the billboard,” according to the lawsuit.

Efforts to reach Mammano were unsuccessful and his firm had not yet filed a response in court to the Kegerreis lawsuit.

Mammano attended the March 12 meeting of the city’s Historical Architecture Review Board on an unrelated matter and brought up the billboard issue. He expressed frustration with the city having issued a permit in January for digital signs, even though HARB in March 2025 denied such a conversion from static to digital, and Scranton City Council in May backed HARB’s denial.

But Kegerreis sued the city in July to overturn that denial. The city later determined the digital signs were allowed under a “loophole” of approval and issued permits for it on Jan. 6. Mammano told HARB on March 12 he learned permits were issued when a representative of the Kegerreis firm reached out to him regarding getting an electrical connection.

“From what I understand, the only way he can get power to the billboard is through my building, which I am not agreeing to by any means,” Mammano told HARB on March 12. Mammano had agreed with HARB’s rejection of the digital displays as not appropriate in the downtown. “If he does get power, every other person that applied for digital billboards (and also were rejected by HARB) will be back saying, ‘Give me one,’ and that’s the problem. Where does it end?”

HARB Chairman Michael Muller replied of the situation, “It sets a bad precedent.”

Kegerreis’ lawsuit against Mammano’s firm seeks court approval for access for an electrical connection. The suit remains pending in court.

Billboard battle background

February 2025: The digital divide came to light during the city’s Historical Architecture Review Board meeting on Feb. 13, when Kegerreis company representative Scott Kegerreis sought HARB approval for digital displays at 320 Mulberry St. That discussion includes that the double billboard was erected in 2012 without city zoning approval, according to an Electric City Television simulcast and video posted online.

The Kegerreis firm bought the billboard structure in December 2024 and started converting the static signs to digital ones. The company had removed both static signs and installed one of the digital signs, when the city issued a stop-work order because no permits had been obtained for the work. The city at first thought Don Mammano, who owns the four-story apartment building right next to the billboard structure, was doing the sign work and contacted him about it.

Mammano in 2013 bought the building called 317 Linden that spans the block between Linden and Mulberry streets. But the billboard structure was separate and not owned by Mammano.

He also was surprised to learn that digital billboards were going up right next to his building and objected for several reasons, including: the structure never got zoning approval; its dimensions do not appear to match a prior permit that had been obtained from the city to erect the sign structure; his question of whether the sign structure could support the weight of digital signs; and aesthetics of rotating digital displays in the downtown district.

Kegerreis cited a “giant miscommunication” between his firm and the prior billboard owner regarding the situation.

March 2025: HARB continued Kegerreis’ application to March 13 to review the question of zoning and learned that under the city’s new zoning code the billboard was grandfathered as a permissible, existing nonconforming use. But HARB still rejected the digital conversion as not appropriate for the downtown historic district.

May 2025: The HARB denial went to Scranton City Council for upholding or reversing. Council on May 22 upheld HARB.

July 2025: Kegerreis sued Scranton, claiming the city missed its own deadline for council to uphold HARB’s advisory denial, and the untimely action created a “deemed approval” of the digital billboards.

September 2025: HARB rejected an unrelated application for a digital billboard for a side wall of the former Rocky’s Lounge at Jefferson Avenue and Biden Street downtown. It was HARB’s third rejection of a digital billboard proposed in the downtown. The prior two involved unrelated applications, buildings and owners, including the Kegerreis billboard denied in March and a billboard proposed for a side wall of a building fronting on Linden Street in the 500 block rejected a few years earlier.

In October, council upheld HARB’s denial of a billboard on Rocky’s wall. Council discussion noted that a digital billboard across the street behind Boccardo Jewelers was erected before HARB jurisdiction in that area was established, so that existing billboard was grandfathered.

January 2026: The city determined the Kegerreis application fell within a loophole of approval and issued permits for the digital conversion at 320 Mulberry St. to proceed. This resolved Kegerreis’ lawsuit against the city.

March 2026: Mammano told HARB he was disappointed to have learned the city settled the lawsuit and issued permits for the digital billboard; and he would not provide electricity through his 317 Linden building for the digital signs.

April 2026: Kegerreis sues Mammano’s 317 Linden firm, claiming it’s blocking electrical access needed for digital billboards at 320 Mulberry St., and Kegerreis has an easement to secure electricity.