Jim Barnett Park — Attraction in Winchester

The roads need to be fixed, the cinder blocks or the top of the edge of Wilkins Lake have quite a few missing or rather kicked into the lake itself and the fence near the lake and just about everywhere in the park needs to be fixed. The job of putting up the fence on top of the wooden fence to stop soccer balls from rolling across the road is a terrible eyesore and it looks like a bunch of kids put it up! The frisbee golf course is in horrendous shape and the one hole near the family fun land playground is always muddy because there is a cracked pipe on that hole and it smells of raw disgusting sewage! I said something 3yts ago about that hole, but obviously nothing was done to fix it. Also, it seems like more times than not the grass on the frisbee golf course it's rarely mowed especially the ones behind the playground and further back. The BIGGEST eyesore is the torn up miniature putt putt golf course. Its artificial turf and the 4x4's are tore up and there is nothing to mark the holes like a real oine would have on every hole there is, plus the brick that's there is cracked and busted up to. Why have water fountains in the park, but you never turn them on for people to have water to drink while working out or to get just a drink period when your thirsty? Our park has become a terrible terrible eyesore and it embarrasses me to take family from out of town there because who wants to show them how poorly our only park is kept. Not me! The key word to that was ONLY park, but yet you all let it go so much that it's really terrible to show anyone! When are you all going to start fixing some of these things? I mean its been like it is for many years now and it'll probably stay that way to. How the person in charge of the park keeps his or her job is beyond me! Fire that person and get some better maintenance workers and a new person in charge who actually cares and gets the park back to where it once use to be when I was a child! Prime example of better maintenance workers who care about the park, this morning they were driving their maintenance truck's on the muddy grass areas to get trash instead of walking to the can and carrying it back to their truck. Stuff like that is ridiculous, totally! Also, you've had the oine section of the park closed for quite awhile unless your going to the dog park. There is NO feasible reason to close that section of the park whatsoever period!! And then when you go back there to show family the dog park and RC car track and horseshoe pits then too have a maintenance worker come up to you and ask if you have a dog and when I said no his exact words were you need to get the hell out of this area! Sounds like you need to have a class with your workers oin how to talk to people in public. Overall, the park is in horrible horrible...

The whole park is great, but this review is specifically for the dog park. Since they made the dog park free, my wife and I take our two dogs at least five times a week. It is well maintained, with lots of space for the dogs to run. There are two stations with pick up bags and a water station. The only thing I will caution is that although toddlers and children are not permitted, some bring them anyway.

If you are there and someone arrives with a toddler pack up and leave or go for a walk. Do not risk your dog hurting their child. Although none of our dogs would purposefully hurt a child, not all dogs have experience with children pulling on their ears or slapping their backs.

Also, the whole point is for them to run around and they might just be excited and run into the child, which could be very dangerous. I had someone tell me this morning "that's what happens when you make it free". I still think it was a good move to make it free but it is up to all of us to make sure it stays open by avoiding accidents. Sorry this was a...

This park can be unsafe. I’ve had many unpleasant experiences here in recent years. There is a group of adult hispanic males that hang out in the woods here at all hours of the day and night and once told me I needed to “be careful” in a threatening tone while I was walking by with my dog. There are always mens underwear strewn about the woods near where they hang out. I was chased by a creepy looking guy on a bike with long stringy hair one evening. I’ve also had an off leash pit bull with no owner in sight run up to me and my dogs. I now have a child and only come here when we’re already in town, but I don’t stray off of the playground area with him. Even there, you will often see children unaccompanied by an adult and sometimes acting out. I often smell pot smoke near the playground area. This park desperately needs more of a presence by park employees and law...