FARMINGTON — The town is struggling with a shortage of seasonal maintenance workers, threatening to set behind the summer maintenance schedule, town officials say.

Finding seasonal maintenance workers is a challenge because it is part-time work, there are age restrictions on running lawn mowers, and the pay is low comparatively, Town Manager Erica LaCroix said Thursday.

“The pay is just over minimum wage, and you can’t have anyone under age 18 to run a mower,” she said.

Minimum wage in Maine increased to $14.65 an hour on Jan. 1.

It would be good work for a high school student but the age restriction for using a mower limits who can work in a seasonal maintenance position, she said.

The town recently lost its full-time public works employee responsible for maintaining the Riverside and Fairview cemeteries on Farmington Falls Road. The position is also responsible for winter sidewalk snow removal, she told selectmen on Tuesday.

“It is hard to get seasonal workers,” LaCroix said. “We hope to have one new summer seasonal position on board as soon as possible, but that position was supposed to provide help in addition to the full-time employee.”

The town will continue to attempt to hire more summer help. And the town will advertise for a person to fill the full-time position, LaCroix said, noting the town just hired one employee for a seasonal position.

In recent years hiring and keeping seasonal help “has proved to be increasingly difficult,” LaCroix said. “In the short run, the cemeteries may not be maintained as well as we would like,” she said.

Public Works crew members will be doing the best they can to take care of the cemeteries, she said, but they also have regular work they need to do.

She is hoping community members will have patience with the situation.

The Parks and Recreation Department also needs seasonal maintenance help to assist the full-time worker who maintains the parks, including Hippach Field, Meetinghouse Park and Walton Mills Park, and other recreation areas in town.