ST. ALBANS – In June, local residents complained to the St. Albans selectmen that children were playing on the lower dam near the fire station on Route 151, also known as the Palmyra Road. They warned the officials that a child was going to be seriously hurt and asked Town Manager Larry Post to request the state to post the area with warning signs.

The signs were erected but apparently don’t do much good on a hot summer night.

Just after 6 p.m. Tuesday, a local teenager fell between 15 and 20 feet onto rocks at the dam while riding his bicycle and suffered a serious head injury.

Sgt. Milford Rice of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department said Derek Cronkite, 13, of Hartland Road, St. Albans, was conscious and talking after the accident.

Fire Chief Jamie Cooper said there was originally a power house at the lower dam but it was torn down and all that remains is a concrete platform. “The kids have been playing down there all summer long,” said Cooper.

Cronkite fell from the platform onto a rock pile and suffered a head injury. There is very little water flowing by the dam at this time of year, said Cooper.

The child was taken by LifeFlight Air Ambulance to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor where his condition was unavailable Tuesday night.