Neighborhoods fostering local pride and maintaining community character while enhancing livability and whereas historic preservation is relevant to the communities across the nation in both urban and rural and Americans of all ages, all walks of life, and all ethnic backgrounds, and whereas it's important to celebrate the role of history in our lives and the contributions made by dedicated individuals in helping to preserve the tangible aspects of the heritage and the shape to us as people, and whereas the observance of National Historic Preservation Month provides an opportunity to promote awareness and historic resources and encourage their protection for future generations.

And whereas National Preservation Month is also co-sponsored by Castle Rock Historical Society, the Castle Rock Historic Preservation Board, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Now, therefore, the town council, the town of Castle Rock, Colorado does hereby proclaim May 2026 as historic preservation month in Castle Rock, Colorado.

All right.

Historic preservation.

Thank you.

Next, I have unscheduled public appearances.

This time is reserved for members of the public to make a presentation to council on items or issues that are not scheduled on the agenda.

As a general practice, the council not discuss or debate these items, nor will council make decisions on these items presented during his time.

Council may refer items to staff or follow-up.

Comments are limited to three minutes per speaker.

Time is limited to 30 minutes total.

Residents will begin given the priority in the order of signed up to address council, followed by non-residents representing Castle Rock businesses, then non-residents, and then businesses outside of town Castle Rock as time permits.

Council is also accepting public comments written online at CRGov.com backslash council comments by one p.m.

today to be included in the public record.

I don't have anybody assignment to speak.

If one wishes to speak, please approach the podium, speak in the microphone, state your name, and whether you are a resident, non-resident, or business owner, you'll have three minutes to speak.

Seeing none, moving on to a town and manager's report.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Uh Kristen is going to start the introduction on our exciting um announcements this evening.

Okay, thank you, Dave and Mayor and Council for having us here this evening.

It's a really exciting time.

There are a number of exceptional young people in the audience who you are about to meet.

But first, I would like you to meet an exceptional adult who we have brought on board to the town team as of yesterday.

Next to me is Jessica Tierney Smith.

She's our new youth commission coordinator.

So she will be uh working with our youth commission moving forward.

She brings amazing experience in uh public, private, and nonprofit, as well as mentoring, education.

She's got a master's in education, so uh really accomplished person to work with our youth commission moving forward.

And uh I don't want to keep you from meeting them any longer.

So we do have our chair, Evan George, and our vice chair Abigail Reynolds, and they are going to present the Rising Star scholarships this evening.

And the only thing I'll add, I have mentioned everyone, but if you all could stay in the front, because we do want to get a picture at the end of everybody together.

So once you've been introduced, please stay up front until the presentation is complete.

But we'll invite up Evan and Abigail now.

Um, good evening, Mayor and Council.

So we are introducing our rising stars scholarship.

Um basically it recognizes outstanding youth in Castle Rock who are graduating seniors hoping to attend um some form of higher education.

So we give each um recipient a thousand dollars.

And this helps um promote like civic engagement for our students, and it also celebrates um young students who are showing exceptional um abilities and leadership in community service.

So yeah, these are individuals who have made um significant contributions to our community.

Uh they again live in Castle Rock, and um their future aspirations are a reflection of the service that they've done so far in their high school careers.

And we met on April 13th, me and the rest of the commission, and we reviewed all of the submissions.

We had to evaluate um what each person brought to the table, and after much deliberating and ranking, we were able to select our final four recipients.

So we had 20 total applicants who were um qualifying for this.

We had eight from Castleview, seven from Douglas County, and we also had two from um Colorado Colleges and two from Renaissance.

We also had one from Rock Canyon.

So we are now going to introduce each of our four recipients.

Um first off, we have Annabelle Clayton.

Uh she is a student from Renaissance Secondary School.

She has demonstrated dedication, leadership, and deep commitment to serving others.

Throughout high school, she has balanced a strong drive for achievement with meaningful community involvement, including coaching youth soccer, serving as a junior camp counselor for families affected by cancer, and volunteering on a ski patrol to provide emergency care.

These experiences have strengthened Annabelle's compassion, resilience, and ability to lead in challenging situations.

Her senior capstone project, Hope on the Slopes, further highlights her initiative in creating opportunities for students facing cancer to find joy and connection.

Through reflection, Annabelle has gained a greater appreciation for the journey as well as the outcomes, shaping a more mindful and service-oriented perspective.

She plans to attend the Colorado School of Minds to study quantitative biosciences and engineering before pursuing medical school with the goal of becoming an emergency medicine physician and continuing to make a meaningful impact in the lives of others.

So please join us up in the front, Annabelle Clayton.

Could you get one?

I'm gonna do everyone at the end.

Congrats.

You deserve it.