WINDHAM – A dispute between two Windham youth sports groups went to town councilors Tuesday night, drawing a discussion regarding the lack of playing fields in town, and what should be done to create more.

With the school complex in Windham Center limiting its access, and most every field in Windham already overbooked by the burgeoning youth sports leagues, Windham Youth Lacrosse is struggling to find space for its spring season. The group has been seeking access to the Gambo fields complex from Windham Youth Soccer, which is hesitant to allow any use of the fields that may jeopardize its fall season. Efforts by the town to mediate a solution have not been successful.

In October 2011, officials from the group approached Windham Youth Soccer, which already has 1,000 kids involved in spring and fall leagues, seeking access to soccer fields in the town-owned field complex off Gambo Road. While soccer officials said they would like to share, they are worried about the already poor condition of the fields, which they said were built to minimal standards due to cost.

The soccer association’s president, Jennifer Kent, said at the time the soccer league “was very concerned as to the integrity of our fields for our spring program and at that time did not think we would allow additional field usage beyond our own program, and we’re fearful of what the additional use would have done to the already torn-up fields.”

Kent said the same concerns remain.

“We feel a fiduciary duty to protect Gambo fields, to make sure those fields are not overused because of the amount of money that has been invested in those fields,” Kent said.

Kent said the town has mediated discussions since 2011, with the town manager and director of parks and recreation unable to broker an arrangement.

Lacrosse officials who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting said there are hundreds of kids in Windham who want to play lacrosse. The town should find a place for them, they said, either by mediating an arrangement with Youth Soccer to afford them playing time on existing soccer fields, or by finding new field space at the school complex or other space the town owns, such as 24 acres near the rotary at the intersection of routes 302 and 202.

The two sides have been trying to come to an agreement for about two years, but there has been little communication in recent months, and with failed mediation since fall 2011, lacrosse officials are frustrated by what they perceive as a lack of action as another season approaches.

According to the fundraising director for Windham lacrosse, Lori Witherow, the organization has hit roadblocks at town hall, so they went to the parents of the 200-plus lacrosse players. They hoped to present a unified front at town hall asking why there was little field space for lacrosse, an up-and-coming sport in town.

“We’re getting the last of the last of the fields that are left after everybody else,” Witherow said. “Most of our other sports organizations in the town have town-owned space that they use. Baseball has some fields that they use. Obviously soccer has Gambo. It’s my opinion we need to get the kids out, we need to keep them active, off the couch. We need to keep them out of North Windham causing trouble. This is for the kids.”

The issue with lacrosse players sharing the Gambo fields is one of overuse, said Keith Elder, a member of the Windham Youth Soccer Association’s board of directors.

“If the fields get overused, the fields will not be there to use in the fall, and no one will be able to use them,” Elder said. “We don’t have the money to go replace a field with turf … It’s a nonprofit organization, all the money gets put back into the fields. There isn’t money to go do a lot of work.”

Elder also took issue with the town’s involvement in an issue he said should be decided among the associations. He said it is a “little bothersome” that Windham Youth Soccer raised and spent its own money 34 years ago to build the seven fields at Gambo, “and now after doing that is risking whatever use they’ve had being taken away from them. It’s a little bothersome that somebody could work so hard for something and somebody could walk right in and take it away, not lacrosse, I’m talking about the town.

“Does the town think it’s a good place to take somebody’s hard work and take that from them or start managing it for them when they have built it for their own needs?”

After extensive public comment from officials and parents from the soccer and lacrosse organizations, town councilors discussed the issue, saying the conflict is ultimately a result of poor planning regarding recreational needs in town. What some parents at the meeting called for – a multi-field athletic complex similar to other towns in the area that can accommodate many team sports – would be possible if taxpayers approved the expenditure, but some councilors said that might be a difficult sell in a still-sagging economy and the potential of a $1.5 million municipal tax increase due to a proposal to cut state revenue sharing.

“This town is lacking fields for one reason,” said Councilor David Nadeau. “For years and years and years, this town has said to sports [associations] you pay your own way, and [the town] hasn’t stepped forth to put fields together. … And the real issue here, which is finally coming to a head, is this town does no planning.”

Nadeau said the town is “running lean” and to improve fields would mean hiking taxes.

Councilor Kevin Call seconded Nadeau comments about what he called a “deficiency” of fields. But Call said the lacrosse group needs to learn a lesson from the scrappy soccer association and make their own way.

“They went out, found the land, and I feel put the work into building the [Gambo] complex,” Call said of the soccer league. “I’m sorry but my opinion is, because of the deficiencies, we need the Windham Youth Lacrosse program to do the same that the soccer program did 30 years ago … We don’t have enough fields. It really does go back to tax dollars.”

Echoing three of his fellow councilors, Chairman Matt Noel suggested near the end of the discussion that the two groups “get in the same room” and work out a potential solution to the problem.

Noel said in coming days he would consult with Town Manager Tony Plante, who admitted during the meeting that both sides weren’t satisfied with his handling of the impasse, to set up the meeting.

“There has to be a willingness to engage, to agree to disagree and to compromise to some degree,” Noel said. “If it’s going to be more of, we’re going to waste people’s time and effort, then it’s not going to work. It’s got to be with an open mind and a hope for the best short-term solution possible, and I think that’s how we can get to a compromise.”