Three new additions to the Clayton Parks and Recreation Department were introduced to the Clayton Town Council during their Dec. 3rd meeting, including the first new director the Town has had in more than 30 years.
Scott Barnard comes to Clayton from the Goldsboro Parks & Recreation, where he has served as a transformational director for the past seven years. Throughout his career, Barnard has supervised and maintained more than 100 parks, greenways and even golf courses across central and eastern North Carolina. Barnard takes over for long-time Parks & Recreation Director Larry Bailey who retired in August after of growing and evolving Clayton’s recreation programs since the 1980s.
Also joining the parks maintenance team is Joe Boettger who serves as a Parks Maintenance Specialist, helping to with the upkeep of seven town parks and numerous athletic fields and recreation facilities. Originally from Greenville, he comes with great parks experience serving in park maintenance for the Town of Winterville, NC.
The third addition to the parks maintenance team is Bobby Henn, a name and face very familiar to our staff and park visitors. Over the past four years, Henn has volunteered his time, passion and machete skills helping design and construct the Town of Clayton’s first disc golf course in the woods of East Clayton Community Park on Glen Laurel Road. As a leader with the Capital Area Disc League, Henn helped bring this increasingly popular sport to Clayton. Disc golf (often erroneously referred to as frisbee golf) is a flying disc game, as well as a precision and accuracy sport, in which individual players throw a flying disc at a target. The 18-hole disc golf course weaves through the woods of Clayton’s largest park and first-timers are encouraged to give the sport a try.
