Varney Playground — Attraction in Chelmsford

This was my first time going here in a very long time. I used to bring my children here when they were younger, we stopped going because the park was for town residents only. Recently I was told that the park was open for anyone again, so I decided to bring my kids to go swimming. There are VERY FEW parking spaces, and a lot of cars park on the side streets. We were lucky enough to have gotten a spot as someone was just leaving. (The park was very overcrowded, thete seemed to have been some private party or event taking place on the lawn/baseball field area. )In order to access the beach area you have to walk down a fairly steep incline beginning with a set of concrete stairs at the entrance to the park. Given the fact we went 2 days after a tropical storm with downpouring rain, I can understand that there may be some "run-off" from the said incline. However, I was EXTREMELY DISSAPPOINTED at the amount of broken glass, beer bottle caps, and misc. trash that was strewn by handfuls (literally, I was picking up by the handful) across the beach area and on the waters edge. There was an actual trash barrel there off to the side, but I'm not sure people can even notice it , it's THAT far off to the side. Other than that, they did have a lifeguard on duty ( although my children know how to swim well, and I watch them like a hawk,, it's still comforting ). There was also separate mens/womens bathrooms available, which is always a good thing when traveling about with children. I didn't get to see much of the playground area , as it was starting to rain so we decided to leave. The kids went over for a few minutes while I was gathering up our stuff, and they reported that it was "dirty" and wanted to wash their hands before we left. Overall, I would consider going here again if it was a less crowded day/last resort resort/ last minute kinda day. But probably wouldn't plan...

Are you kidding me? Someone posted a five star review of this park two weeks ago praising the view of the water and the children's park, but the children's park has been taped off and closed for months now. There hasn't been any progress on this park since winter began last year, piles of mulch sit on unspread, and there's construction fencing everywhere... Despite the fact the park looks nearly complete. Come on Chelmsford select men and get with the program, finish the park. There's no excuse to have it sit in the current state it's been, nearly complete but still unusable and with zero progress in months.

Also the old park with all the wooden structures was awesome and so much fun for all the kids. It was a real feature for the area. Whoever decided to take that huge park down and build this new smaller cookie cutter park instead clearly doesn't care about keeping impressive features in town. ...

I LOVE the lake here, its nice in the summer. They have a lifeguard in the summer for the lake, it's a small little beach but not to many ppl go here, a lot probably don't know it's even there. The park is huge and pretty cool, in the shade. A lot of shade until you get on the beach. Later in the afternoon it will get more shade. Has a nice new basketball court, has a big baseball field. Everything is clean. The place did close down for about a week because of high bacteria, that would be the only downfall, just don't swallow the water & makesure you keep babies & young ones above water even when their is no ban. There are bathrooms. All over I love this little beach. Used to be called Crystal Lake years ago. Not really sure what the Lake is called now I think Freeman Lake. Great...