A

The public’s help is needed to locate the vandals responsible for spray-painting graffiti all over Adventure Mountain, the children’s play area located inside Winchester City Park.

The current damages are the worst the play area has suffered since opening up several decades ago.

“They did a lot at one time,” Winchester Recreation Director Darrell Jolley said of the vandals.

Profanity and graphic drawings were spray-painted on virtually every piece of equipment on the playground as well as the sidewalks and walls.

The owner of Young Motorsports in Estill Springs is offering a $1,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the individuals who committed the shameful acts on Feb. 17 after the park had closed for the night. 

Temperatures were cold that night, hovering in the high 30s, and Jolley said not many people would have been outdoors to witness the act.

A group of volunteers have worked to scrub out some of the most offensive graffiti, but they could only do so much. 

Jolley brought in the big guns to help out on Thursday morning, arranging for a volunteer, three-man, pressure-washing crew of Don Hall, Jason Taylor and Tyler Legend to remove the paint. 

By 10:30 a.m., the Under Pressure team had been working for more than two hours. Hall said he figured they would be there a few more hours going back over the harder-to-remove writing. 

Paint remover was being sprayed on the large support posts that displayed the words “hangman” as well as other indecipherable words.

“This is my first graffiti job,” joked Hall as he aimed the pressure nozzle at a swing seat, blasting it with hot water while the other two men held it steady, getting soaked in the process.

While that was going on, 1-year-old Hazel Hopkins tottered eagerly into the park with her mother, Carrie Hopkins, close behind. 

She led mom straight to the colorful slide. Her mother was clearly disappointed that vandals would choose to target the children’s play area.

“It’s pretty crappy that the ones who did this thought it was funny to come to a place where little kids play and ruin it,” Carrie said. “I’m sure some parents came in with their kids after it happened and turned right around and walked back out.”

A post on Young Motorsports’ Facebook page reads, “This is not a good surprise to walk up to with my kids when we went to go play out in the good weather.”  

Jolley said he hopes someone who might have been in the group that did it will just wizen up and contact him and just apologize and offer to help clean it up.

If he could choose a punishment, Jolley said he would have them work for him for free at the park for a 40-hour week so they could learn to appreciate the park and what it takes to maintain it.

“I love for people to enjoy the park and take care of it,” Jolly said. “But every week there is something that gets damaged, whether it’s someone doing donuts in the parking lot or kids disrespecting the park equipment, the tennis courts and other things.”

Jolley went on to say they have received a few leads in the case but they still have “some pieces of the puzzle to sort out.”  

The Winchester Police Department is investigating. Anyone with information is asked to contact Young Motorsports at 931-434-3384 or the WPD at 931-967-3840. Informants may remain anonymous.