Inside Castle Rock’s historic Cantril school auditorium, Mayor Jason Gray touted the accomplishments of the town’s 142nd year, including its purchase of the iconic building. 

Over 150 people gathered for the State of the Town on Aug. 16 in Castle Rock’s oldest building, where the annual recap of town efforts featured a look back on history and how that shapes where it’s heading. 

Before the State of the Town, Douglas County School District and town officials celebrated a key ceremony to officially mark the change of ownership of the schoolhouse.

“We want to preserve our history and our vision for the town, both old and new,” Gray said. “Our community deserves to have this building.”

Growth in Castle Rock remains an area of focus, though Director of Development Services Tara Vargish said the town is seeing the lowest pace of single family home construction in over a decade.

Gray added that the council and staff work to increase open space and decrease the number of units for developments wherever possible.

“For example, if there’s 500 homes allowed in a certain area, the town works hard to try and figure out do you really need 500 homes, maybe it’s 350 or 375,” he said. “We do, I think, a really great job at trying to make sure we do quality development and trying to make sure we get as much open space and a great return for our citizens.”

One consequence of a slow down in development is that the town is collecting less revenue to fund road maintenance projects. 

“We won’t have the funds to take on some projects as soon as we thought we could,” Director of Public Works Dan Sailer said. 

However, Castle Rock continues to move forward with major road work, such as the Crystal Valley Interchange project, the Four Corners project and widening Plum Creek Parkway and Ridge Road.

The town’s finances are also being impacted by sales tax revenue not reaching projections for the year so far. Despite that, the overall town budget remains strong, Director of Finance Trish Muller said.

“Our financials are still positive overall, we’re simply not seeing the same strength we saw last year,” Muller said. 

Funding from a 2021 tax measure for public safety services is going to help build three new fire stations in northeast Castle Rock, Dawson Trails and the west Wolfensberger corridor over the course of the next decade.

Additionally, Castle Rock Police Chief Jack Cauley said the police department is fully staffed and adding positions with the funding. Cauley said crime in town is down from previous years, including car break-ins and property crimes.

When it comes to parks and recreation, the town is in the process of renovating Mitchell Gultch Park and discussing the possibility of a new recreation center. In 2022, over 16,000 people enrolled in the town’s recreation programs and Castle Rock’s 110 miles of trails saw over 38,000 visitors.

Castle Rock Water continues to work on its goal of achieving 75% renewable water use in town by 2050, such as by encouraging water conservation and using reuse water. 

“We work really hard at creating a town that’s a liveable, fantastic community and it can’t be done without our citizens help and without our staff,” Gray said.

The event closed out with the ringing of the schoolhouse bell.