RUMFORD – With less than a month remaining in the Mahoosuc Land Trust’s two-year effort to buy 751 acres on Whitecap Mountain, a brewing controversy could derail the deal.

The trust wants to preserve the land for traditional uses and prevent development within the roughly T-shaped parcel on the south side of the 2,214-foot mountain. The land the trust wants is owned by Bayroot LLC, and includes a small portion of the bald summit and its sheer cliff overlooking Rumford.

Leo “Demps” Kersey Jr., 84, of Rumford owns another 107 mountain acres, including most of the summit and open ledges abutting the Bayroot parcel. His children oppose the land deal. They worry that once people reach the summit section that the trust wants to buy, they’ll fan out across Kersey land and destroy it.

The Bayroot property’s price tag is $760,743. After being awarded a $243,000 Land for Maine’s Future program grant, the trust remains $130,000 shy of meeting it as of Thursday, said Jim Mitchell, trust executive director. The deal closes on March 30.

The Kerseys have drafted a petition seeking to prevent LMF from paying the grant money.

Director Tim Glidden said the money won’t change hands until the deal closes and the trust buys the land.

“I completely understand the Kerseys’ concern that something might get out of control,” Glidden said by phone late Friday afternoon. “I’ve been encouraging the trust to sit down and work with the Kerseys. There’s more common interests than differences, and there should be cooperation on both sides.”

The trust also acquired an easement from landowner Joanne Starr for a trail from East Andover Road on the western side of Rumford Whitecap up to the Bayroot portion of the summit. That means the trust will have legal access to reach the summit without crossing anyone’s land, Glidden also said.

Leo Kersey Jr.’s sons, Mike Kersey of Weld and Leo Kersey III of Dixfield, and daughter, Colleen Martineau of Dixfield, said Friday that they’re working to place the Kersey parcel into a family trust to preserve it for future generations.

Mike Kersey said his dad, who was the head of communications on Iwo Jima during WWII and just outside of camera range in Joe Rosenthal’s infamous flag-raising photograph, got the idea then to buy a mountain in Maine. He realized that dream on Dec. 15, 1969, buying the 107 acres from Lester Farrington.

The Kersey land includes what has been described as the largest red pine stand in Maine, rare plants, and large patches of wild blueberry bushes.

“Our land’s never been posted, and now they’re going to over-publicize and ruin it,” Mike Kersey said. “It will become an outhouse for the masses.”

Not so, says Mitchell.

“Our goals are the same,” he said. “We don’t want to abuse the summit, and we don’t want to have people abuse it and the rare plants. We want to be good stewards of the land and good neighbors of the Kerseys, and we welcome their input on the land.”

The Kerseys mistrust Mahoosuc, and have been angered by its fundraising publicity and documents submitted to LMF supporting the grant request.

“They’re a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Martineau said.

The Kersey siblings said the trust misrepresented the Bayroot property to the public and the LMF from the get-go when seeking donations, by stating that it included more than 132 acres of bald summit with 360-degree views. Most of that is Kersey land.

“They’re advertising our property to gain their money,” Leo Kersey III said.

“They’re infringing on our property rights. This just floors me. This is the biggest bunch of blankety blank, blank, blank I’ve ever seen,” Mike Kersey said, trying to refrain from swearing.

Glidden said Thursday, however, that the LMF board was aware from the original trust proposal that the summit is owned by two landowners.

Following a meeting Thursday between the Kerseys, Mitchell and trust board member Steve Wight, Mitchell said he had the offending language and misinformation removed from the trust’s Web site.

Their brochures and the Web site still show photographs of Kersey property, however.

“I don’t think this is a question of who’s right and who’s wrong, but rather, it’s a question of, now, are we going to get together and say we want to keep the public coming to the top of the mountain?” Glidden asked.

Mike Kersey said they’ll post their dad’s land if they have to, to protect it.

“We’re going to do everything and anything we can do to stop LMF from giving them taxpayers’ money,” he said.