ALLAGASH – Shauna McBreairty swatted away at black flies and wiped sweat from her face and arms while on a break from her six-week-long summer job.

This summer, the teen-ager is involved in giving a face-lift to many town-owned recreational facilities that have deteriorated over several years because of the lack of maintenance.

The 16-year-old Fort Kent Community High School junior is one of eight local teen-agers working in this small northwestern Maine town thanks to a nearly $19,000 grant from the Juvenile Justice Advisory Group.

Like her counterparts, McBreairty is proud of the work she is doing for the community, especially for the kids growing up behind her in a town where the population has dwindled to 277 residents from 448 in 1980.

“The grass was this high in the ball field when we started,” she said pointing above her waist. “The work has been pretty hard. Fun.

“We’ve had fun while we are doing all these jobs,” she continued. “It’s been pretty interesting and challenging.”

Like some of her friends, McBreairty admitted that the summer might have been a boring time, consisting of a lot of sleeping, without the grant and the work the young people have been able to do.

Phil Theriault, 17, the youngest of five children in his family, agreed that he might have spent a lot of time in front of the television set without the summer job.

There’s not much work for teen-agers in Allagash, unless they want to travel to Fort Kent, 30 miles away.

“This has been good for us and good for the town,” he said. “I like to play sports, but the facilities were not very good.

“It’s been a good job for me,” he said. “We do different things, and it’s been interesting.”

Corinna O’Leary, a native of Allagash who now lives in St. Francis, is the project leader for the kids, and at the head of an 18-person volunteer committee who sought the grant. Many of the committee people, and other adults in the community, have worked alongside the kids, helping with the project.

Included in the work is the restoration of a softball field, volleyball court and basketball court. They also cleaned, organized and restored the Allagash Historical Society building, painted and helped with cataloging in the town library and did some painting at the town office and municipal building. They cleaned picnic sites and walking trails at Walker Brook on the St. John River and Two Brook Falls on Pelletier Brook. They also picked up trash the length of Route 161 through town.

The eight teens work 20 hours a week for six weeks at a rate of $7 per hour. They will finish their program in about two weeks, just before school starts for the new year.

“It gives them a sense of pride and a sense of self,” O’Leary said of the work program. “It’s increased their connection to the community and I think it changed their attitude towards their town and school life.

“These kids want to work and there was no work locally for them during the summer,” she said. “The town could not fund the program itself, so we went after a grant.”

The town and local people are helping with some materials and labor.

On Tuesday, Alan Gardner was helping out, donating his 10-wheeler dump truck and his payloader. He operated the machinery, helping the kids to clear out and level an area to the side of the municipal building. He and others, such as Pelletier Logging, are not charging for their equipment and time.

The local high school closed in 1989 and the elementary school closed in 1996. Children in the town attend SAD 27 schools at St. Francis and Fort Kent.

There are not many kids left in town. O’Leary said the town has only 13 kids left in grades nine through 12.

Along with cleaning the area on Tuesday, Theriault and Jake Soucy were installing a brightly colored 4-foot-high fence around the softball field. Three girls were busy painting posts around the field, cleaning up a utility shed and giving a snowmobile trail groomer the once-over after a winter of heavy use.

They are going to install posts and backboards at a basketball court and install volleyball nets and posts. They cut and hauled branches at the picnic sites, while adults cuts trees and helped clear the heavier debris.

“We are trying to get the facilities built up again,” O’Leary said. “People want to see these things used again, and the adults think the kids are doing a great job.

“Grown-ups know that not much has been happening in the town in recent years,” she said. “Now they are volunteering, seeing that something is being done.”

“They’ve done a super job at the historical building,” Mary Jackson, a member of the historical society, said Tuesday. “They have spruced up the place, making it nice again.

“I’m not the only one who thinks the kids are doing a great job,” Jackson said. “Adults are talking about what they are doing all the time.”

O’Leary said a day of celebration will be held on Labor Day weekend for the kids and the work they have done. There will be a barbecue, softball games and a live band to signal the end of summer.

“It will be a nice way to thank the kids for what they have done,” O’Leary said. “They are doing a super job.”