PORTLAND -- The city is receiving a $20,000 grant toward the construction of a new skate park at Dougherty Field.

The state Department of Conservation announced today that Portland was one of five communities to receive a total of more than $100,000 in federal grant money for recreation projects ranging from trails to playground projects.

The money brings the city a step closer to launching the $325,000 skate park project. So far, the city has raised approximately $230,000 for the park, to be built off Douglass Street, spokeswoman Nicole Clegg said.

Portland has been without a skate park since 2006, when the Forum on Marginal Way was torn down to make way for commercial development.

The city's Skatepark Planning Committee has hired Kennebunkport design company Who Skates? to design the park and wants to begin construction in the spring.

The grants are administered by the state and funded by the Land and Water Conservation Fund Program with money from federal offshore leases for developments such as oil platforms. Other communities to receive grants include:

• Gardiner, awarded $25,000 to replace the playground at the Town Common.

• Skowhegan, $20,000 to upgrade the playground at Memorial Field.

• Woodland, in Aroostook County, $25,000 to replace a playground at the Woodland Community School.

• The Piscataquis County Commission, $23,885 toward the acquisition of a two-acre parcel in Greenville Junction, to be used for trailhead access.

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