Grant Beach Park — Attraction in Springfield

I cannot stress enough... DO NOT play sports through Grant Beach! It's a joke! The lady in charge no absolutely nothing about sports and is too concerned about selling popcorn to run a successful and safe program. We have seen beatings, stabbings, and used syringes on the ground during games. And Lord knows how many offenders LIVE in the pavilion! They create their own rules for sports that have been established for decades. So nobody watching, half of the coaches, and most of the refs don't know what's going on. We have been to so many meetings with the board to come up with solutions on how to improve the program. Each one more empty promises than the last. Yesterday's flag football game was the last straw. When a ref who is a 15 year old boy! that doesn't know the game and threatens a grown man to "knuck up" for being corrected on the rules is a huge problem! Especially since his grandma is the person in charge... At the end of the day instead of supporting our springfield neighborhoods, we will be participating in Nixa's athletics...

Every encounter with the employees of park board that carry out the day to day maintenance of this park has always been a pleasure. It obviously is a position that gets little notice. & I'm sure they face some inconceivable situations as they perform all the tasks for which they are responsible But the employees are approachable & willing to offer any information they could if I asked a question concerning the park. While they usually go unseen most of the time, they ADD to the overall great opinion I have of time I spend there as part of my daily walk. But, in contrast to the Park I used to live close to, & use almost daily(PGP), may we have the doggie waste bags available for when we dog walkers find we need one, & don't have...

Place was very dirty. I know they can't help who is at the park but most people that were there on the day I went were not people I would want my kids around. A lot of drugs and bad activities were taking place over the 4 hours we were there. As my family and I were walking the trail we found 2 needles that someone had left on the ground. I do not recommend this park for children that are not going to stay right next to parents. If the park was cleaned a little better and it didn't have so many homeless and bad people there I would...