THE ROCK -- Castle Rock Real Estate Blog

Well, I'm a little late to the punch here because many of the best events of the summer have already past like the 20th Annual Elephant Rock Cycling Festival, The Castle Rock Art Walk, and the Parker Country Festival. But there are still plenty of great events still to happen this summer. Here is an ongoing list... If you know of any more, please share!

Starlight Summer Movie Festival

This is so fun! Every summer, a few nights are set aside for a town movie night. The festivities start at 6:30 pm with a massive street festival on 2nd Street between Perry and Wilcox. Then at 8:30, the movie starts. Bring your kids and your lawn chair. On July 7th come see Spider Man 2, and on September 1st, RV.

Music in the Courtyard

You can see live music every Thursday night in downtown Castle Rock at the courtyard. For more info call: 303-688-2622

Renaissance Festival

This is a HUGE event. People from all over Colorado drive to see live jousting, sword fighting, and enjoy medieval fun and great food. It is held in the Larkspur area which is only about 15 minutes from Castle Rock. It is held every weekend from June 9th - July 29th For more information visit: www.coloradorenaissance.com

Relay For Life - June 23rd

Walk for cancer at the Douglas County Fairgrounds

BBQ & Beer at the Grange - June 29th

6:30-9:00pm

Music in the Meadows - July 11th & 25th

Outdoor concert at Butterfield crossing park - Meadowslink.com

Castle Rock Wine Fest - July 21st

Free wine tasting at the Grange in the Meadows from 11am-7pm Visit Castlerockwinefest.com for more information

There are alot of other great events happening in Castle Rock this summer like the annual Castle Rock and Meadows Fourth of July fire work show. Stay tuned for more...

In a meeting on June of 2006, the town of Castle Rock, and the Douglas County school district decided to move forward with the addition of a new middle school in Castle Rock set to open in early 2008: "Castle Rock Middle School #8". From what I was able to learn, this middle school is going to be in founder's Village.

Everything was moving forward as planned when the developer in the transaction filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy leaving the town of Castle Rock and the Douglas County school district in serious trouble as 1.4 million was loaned to the developer for the project.

It still remains to be seen whether or not the town of Castle Rock will be able to recoup it's losses. It seems that a 2008 opening is now going to be nearly impossible.

Since the short time I've lived in Colorado, one of the things that has impressed me the most are the views.  There is pretty much unlimited visibility year around... and for a kid from Orange County California that rarely got glimpses of the natural skyline, I have to say, it is pretty incredible.

This is a picture of Pike's Peak from Castle Rock.  It is a good 60 miles away, and it still looks like you can reach out and touch it.  Even the picture doesn't do it justice.

I just got mine in the mail a few days ago...   It's nice that the county sends these out as a public service.  It always kind of freaks me out when I get the Notice of Valuation in the mail because it's usually so much lower than I actually paid for the house.  But I remind myself that it's just for tax purposes, and I feel better that I'm paying less than what I did actually pay for it.

Along with my NOV, I also received appeal instructions that include a new process to file your appeal with the county assessor online.

Here is how to appeal your Notice of Valuation with Douglas County:

1. Go to http://www.douglas.co.us/assessor
2. Click on "File a Protest ONLINE"
3. Enter your your account number and security as found on your Notice of Valuation
4. File your appeal
   

I posted some new pictures of Castle Rock on my Flicker page.  Some of them are pictures from on top of "THE ROCK", like this one here...