The Westchester County Board of Legislators voted unanimously Monday to take control of Memorial Field in Mount Vernon and lead in the renovations of the facility.

For more than a decade, three Mount Vernon mayors have tried and failed to repair the dilapidated ballfield.

Memorial Field has been mired in controversy for years, but the drama reached a fever pitch this summer when Mayor Richard Thomas evicted the tennis center at the park in the middle of the night. The tennis center's million-dollar bubble was also deflated.

The City Council sued and passed a resolution allowing the county, which is putting up most of the money for the upgrades, to spearhead efforts to renovate the field.

County legislators say after a decade of no progress, the time has come to finish the project.

While Mayor Thomas balked at a county takeover and has insisted that city officials should call the shots, he perhaps had a change of heart Monday.

"I've always said I want to partner with the county. I want to work with the county. I just want to make sure that we get the field open as soon as possible," he said.

Before the county starts the renovations on Memorial Field, the city is first responsible for cleaning up any environmental issues.