DOVER — As she walked around the Dover Teen Center on Wednesday, watching people play pool and Guitar Hero, Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter smiled and said "It's nice to see this."

Shea-Porter used an earmark earlier this year to secure $233,000 in federal funds to ensure the center will remain open full-time for three years.

The teen center was closed for more than two weeks this summer after the City Council could not find money in the budget to keep it open.

The first-term Democrat said the funds represent New Hampshire taxpayers' money and communities like Dover should receive their share of tax dollars for such programs.

Dover Police Chief Anthony Colarusso said Shea-Porter worked on securing the funds for several months.

"I went looking," Shea-Porter said. "That's my job."

In September, she called Colarusso to let him know the funds had been approved. he said.

Without the funds, Shea-Porter could have visited a very different teen center on Wednesday.

Under the first budget proposed to councilors, the teen center was going to transition into a three-day-a-week, drop-in center run by part-time employees and interns. It was then restored as a full-time operation after councilors learned Shea-Porter had secured the grant funds.

It is doubtful the city would have been able to maintain a full-time teen center for the next three years without Shea-Porter's help, Colarusso said.

The floated operation changes spelled trouble for some people, including the group of teenagers and parents who converged on City Hall and protested its closure.

Jordan Gillies, 14, a freshman at Dover High School, said he was one of several students who pleaded with councilors in June to keep the center open. He said he has been coming to the center after school for about a year and really enjoys hanging out there with his friends.

"It's just a good environment," he said.

Without the federal funds, it is doubtful the city would have been able to maintain a full-time teen center for the next three years, Colarusso said.

Shea-Porter toured the center, which is located inside the McConnell Center, with Colarusso and center director Steve Pappajohn.

At one point, about 25 middle- and high-school students were playing the popular interactive video game Guitar Hero on one of the center's large, flat-screen televisions, playing pool, pingpong and just hanging out.

"This is a real beehive of activity," Shea-Porter said.

As a former social worker from Rochester, Shea-Porter said she the importance of places like the teen center to maintain their presence. She said they make up the "fabric of a community" and help people grow and develop in a safe environment.

"They think they're coming here for the games and the pizza, but they're also getting some support," she said.

Gillies, the high school freshman, said he feels he is better at homework and public speaking as a result of coming to the teen center. He said he'd have nothing to do if he just went home after school.

The teen center, where 25 to 30 people can be found regularly, is open five days a week from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., Pappajohn said.

The center features Foosball tables, computers with Internet access and even stages shows in an adjacent room the center shares with the Dover Coalition Youth to Youth program.

Pappajohn said the center has made a positive difference in the lives of many people who come from families where both parents work full time or households in distress.

"My gut feeling is that if kids don't have a place to go, they would end up making poor choices," Pappajohn said.