The work the Town is undertaking to contribute to the quality of life in Castle Rock was the highlight of Mayor Jason Gray’s State of the Town event last month.

Among the most notable achievements in this regard was the Town’s acquisition of Cantril School in May. Not only will the Town preserve the historical building for generations to come, but it will also offer arts and enrichment programming in the building beginning this fall.

Great work is underway within each Town department. Here are a few highlights:

Castle Rock Water

Castle Rock Water continues to encourage conservation by requiring water-wise ColoradoScape landscaping for new homes. We’re also collaborating with other communities on water supply and storage projects to help achieve our goal of using 75% renewable water by 2050.

Castle Rock Police Department

Castle Rock remains one of the safest communities in the State, even while it grows. Vehicle break-ins are down, along with property crimes and crimes overall. The Castle Rock Police Department is busy, but great technology, equipment and training help the department keep up.

Castle Rock Fire and Rescue

Castle Rock Fire and Rescue anticipates opening a sixth fire station to serve northeastern Castle Rock in late 2025. This will be possible in part due to the community’s approval of a “TABOR timeout” for the Town through 2030. Fees paid for building new homes and commercial buildings will also help fund the station.

Parks and Recreation

The renovated Butterfield Crossing Park with the new Possibilities Playground opened in June. We’re also working to connect the Colorado Front Range Trail throughout Castle Rock and to add a new park in Plum Creek, along Emerald Drive. We’re hoping to bring the community a new sports development facility as part of the proposed Brickyard project along South Prairie Hawk Drive.

Development Services

The pace of development in Castle Rock generally corresponds with economic cycles and is the lowest that it’s been in over a decade in terms of the construction of single-family homes. For details on projects underway around Town, visit CRgov.com/DevelopmentActivityMap.

Public Works

Work on the widening of Plum Creek Parkway and Ridge Road is wrapping up. We’ll soon be working on improvements to the “Four Corners” intersection of Founders Parkway, Fifth Street, State Highway 86 and Ridge Road. We also anticipate beginning work on the Town’s top transportation priority – the Crystal Valley interchange – later this year. The slower pace of growth means we won’t have the funds to take on some other projects as soon as we thought we could.

Finance

We are beginning to see a slowdown in sales tax, one of the Town’s key revenues. Last year was an incredibly strong year in that regard, and this year so far hasn’t met our projections. This happens from time to time, and we’re working with staff to identify potential savings to ensure we are only spending what we have and keeping our savings strong. Our financials are still positive overall – we’re simply not seeing the same strength we saw last year.

Visit CRgov.com/StateOfTheTown to watch videos from the State of the Town that touch on common misconceptions about the departments’ operations and highlight work underway. Ongoing project updates can be found at CRgov.com/MajorProjects.

David L. Corliss is the town manager of Castle Rock