A contentious split between two groups involved in organizing Gorham youth baseball and softball is raising questions about who will win the rights to run the programs in town this summer.

For several years, the Gorham Recreation Department, in partnership with Gorham Youth Baseball and Softball Association, a group of volunteers and parents, have been organizing the Cal Ripkin Baseball and Babe Ruth Softball programs. However, a split has developed as the two organizations vie for control. But only one Gorham entity can hold a charter from the Ripkin and Ruth leagues, headquartered in Trenton, N.J.

Cindy Hazelton, Gorham recreation director, said this week it’s prepared to offer the full program and is accepting registrations for play this year.

“We’re ready to go,” Hazelton said.

Town Manager David Cole said last week that there is “no new group that has any official sanction or recognition from the town. Gorham Recreation will continue to provide the youth softball and baseball programs as they have for the past 30 years.”

Meanwhile, Gorham Youth Baseball and Softball is also registering kids for the Cal Ripkin and Babe Ruth programs.

“We now have our own ability to register and have a website,” Cressey Mollison, president of the board, said this week.

Its website says, “Registration is done via the GYBSA Web Site, not Gorham Rec., since we are a separate entity.”

At issue in Gorham is which organization this year surfaces with the charter, collects the players’ registration fees and spends the money.

Hazelton said Gorham has been affiliated with Cal Ripkin and Babe Ruth since 1995. Gorham has both a regular playing season for youth in which all kids play, plus a post-season so the all-stars from teams can travel to play in tournaments.

Hazelton said a subcommittee of a Recreation Department Advisory Board, which was disbanded a few years ago, acquired the original charter.

Now, the volunteers’ group claims it holds the charter for the programs in Gorham. Mollison, who has been president two years, said his name is on that charter and the volunteers’ group owns it.

“The Gorham Youth Baseball and Softball board is prepared to take legal action if necessary,” Mollison said.

Hazelton contends the Recreation Department is eligible to apply for the charter.

Barry Jordan of Sebago, the state commissioner in Maine for the league headquarters, said the charter expired on Feb. 1.

“The issue is, they both feel they own the charter,” Jordan said.

Jordan indicated that a new charter would not be issued until the dispute is settled in Gorham. It is an issue that Gorham has to work out, Jordan said.

Town Councilor Shonn Moulton, whose daughter plays in the Gorham youth program, is stepping into the matter in hopes of resolving the dispute through mediation. On Tuesday, Moulton recommended a panel so that Mollison could sit down with him, Town Council Chairman Michael Phinney, Cole and Hazelton in an effort to work things out.

The dispute appears to have stemmed from a January meeting between a representative of the Gorham Recreation Department and members of the Gorham volunteers’ group, in which the role of that group was at issue. Hazelton, who is on vacation, said on Wednesday “our hope” for that meeting was to clarify and define what the Recreation Department would do and what the volunteers’ group would do.

But, Hazelton said, it didn’t materialize because the volunteers’ group said it was going on its own.

Following that meeting, Hazelton sent a letter to Gorham Youth Baseball and Softball, referring to the volunteers’ group as a commission.

“It is our understanding based on comments by your members on Monday, Jan. 26, 2015, to the Recreation Department Sports Director Mike Gradone and a posting on your website that the commission has decided that you no longer wish to be affiliated with Gorham Recreation Department,” Hazelton wrote to the volunteers’ group on Jan. 28.

“As a service to the commission, should you wish to re-consider and manage the post-season opportunities for Gorham Youth Baseball and Softball players, Gorham Recreation Department will continue to affiliate with Cal Ripkin and Babe Ruth so that your group may offer the travel portion of youth baseball as your group was originally established to do.”

Mollison said his board was under the impression that the Recreation Department had previously encouraged it to become a legal entity. Mollison said this week that Gorham Baseball and Softball has been running 90 percent of the program. The group said that last year, 270 children registered for the programs through the Gorham Recreation Department.

To straighten out the matter, Moulton said, talks are important as soon as possible and to get a charter.

“I don’t want to have to go to council action,” Moulton said.

Mollison said he met briefly with Moulton following Tuesday’s Town Council meeting. But no date for a mediation meeting had been set by the American Journal deadline on Wednesday.

Jordan said cost of a charter varies depending on the number of teams in each community program and whether a community wanted to buy insurance through the league headquarters.

In the past in Gorham, a percentage of player registration fees has covered charter costs. According to the Gorham Recreation Department website, the player registration fee is $75 for registrations before Feb. 28 and $85 afterward.

The Gorham Youth Baseball and Softball website lists its registration fee at $80 per player.

Hazelton said $27 of Gorham Recreation Department’s $75 player fee has gone to the volunteers’ group to support the cost of the charter. Hazelton said the remaining $48 is utilized by the town to provide portable toilets at the fields, purchase all baseballs and softballs, supplies for field maintenance, first aid kits, bases and pitching rubbers, catchers’ equipment, contribution for players’ ball caps, and yellow safety tops for fences at fields.

“We buy all the trophies,” Hazelton said. “We purchase all the helmets.”

Hazelton said the volunteers’ group receives $1,500 for umpires, which is not part of the $48. In addition, Hazelton said, the town mows the fields.

The volunteers group, according to information posted on its website, said it has fundraisers including snack shacks sales. It said it gave $5,000 last year to the Recreation Department to fix a backstop at the Village School field.

“All decisions regarding scheduling, teams, uniforms, coaching, administration, practices, player assessments, playoffs, all-stars, umpire training, umpire scheduling, umpire payments, snack shacks, teams, number of players per team, league affiliations, field maintenance, field clean up, etc., etc. have been made and performed by the GYBSA volunteer board and you our parent volunteers,” the volunteers’ group wrote in a message on its website.

The posting also said, “The Rec. has a place in this town, it is just not running Cal Ripken Baseball and Babe Ruth Softball.”

Hazelton said her department previously had not experienced a group that wants to leave the Recreation Department and the town.

“It’s like being in a squeeze play,” Hazelton said, using baseball jargon.

However, Hazelton said, the kids are going to play. “That’s the bottom line,” she said.

If Gorham doesn’t receive a charter, Mollison said, Gorham kids could not play in a postseason tournament.

Gorham Recreation Department, in partnership with Gorham Youth Baseball and Softball Association, a group of volunteers and parents, have been organizing the Cal Ripkin Baseball and Babe Ruth Softball programs for several years.