HAGERSTOWN, Md. (WDVM) — The Hagerstown Skate Park Committee has raised $550,000 so the city’s youth has somewhere to skate. The group is currently looking to raise another $150,000 to complete park plans.

“Our goal was to successfully plan a skatepark the community wanted that fulfills the goals of having something accessible to children who need the park the most,” said Philip Scolaro, chairman of the Hagerstown Skate Park Committee.

That’s where the Washington County Commissioners come into play.

“We requested a hotel grant that’s county-based. We’ve asked for about one month of the tax dollars that hotels bring in. That’s where their grant money comes from, bout $150,000 to build a strip of the park that has the most color, and some of the features that children asked for the minister will have what everybody knows is the halfpipe, and 80% of the parks artwork. Currently, that’s on hold,” said Scolaro.

Philip Scolaro, along with Will Boyer and others, teaches kids how to skateboard in another location.

Once the skate park is complete, they will have somewhere permanent to skate that is safe and free.

“I have kids now so I want my kids, if they want to skateboard and have a place to do it that isn’t in a parking lot or a busy street or someplace downtown that they’re going to get kicked out of,” said Will Boyer, fundraiser organizer for the Hagerstown Skate Park Committee.

Park construction is expected to begin in September and finish near Thanksgiving.