Transforming a Special District: How Pueblo West Built a Digital Front Door for Residents
Keys to Project:
Incremental digital transformation through a single integrated vendor suite
City:
Pueblo West, ColoradoPopulation:
35,512Challenge:
Fragmented systems and paper-heavy processes strained staff capacity and limited transparency. The community needed a reliable way to engage residents, manage records, and keep pace with rising expectations—all without a large IT department.
Solution:
Pueblo West adopted seven CivicPlus solutions as its needs and capabilities evolved.
Result:
- Reliable website as the digital hub for residents - 1,400+ subscribers to the new mass notification system in year one - Multi-streamed public meetings featuring dependable recording and archiving - Faster agenda prep and streamlined workflows across departments - Peace of mind from archiving and accessibility tools, reinforcing trust and compliance
Background: Building for Growth and Community Spirit
Pueblo West, Colorado, is an unincorporated community of about 35,512 residents in Pueblo County. Established in 1970 as a planned development, it was designed to combine small-town living with outdoor recreation at the nearby Pueblo Reservoir. Today, it’s known for its family-friendly neighborhoods, strong schools, and a mix of rural-suburban character. Growth has been steady over the past decade, with more families and businesses calling Pueblo West home each year.
As the community has expanded, so have its residents’ expectations for modern, accessible services. Pueblo West Metropolitan District recognized early that technology would be central to meeting those demands.
Since 2015, the district has partnered with CivicPlus to methodically build out a suite of integrated solutions—seven in total—that today serve as the backbone of communication, transparency, and resident engagement.
At the center of this ongoing effort is Matt Lund, Director of Business Administration. With an IT background, Lund has guided Pueblo West through this digital transformation during nearly five years in the district. His team’s philosophy has been simple: Start with a strong foundation and build step by step, ensuring each new solution adds real value to residents and staff.
The Challenge: Fragmented Systems and Rising Expectations
Like many growing communities, Pueblo West faced a set of familiar obstacles:
- A dated, cluttered website that was difficult for residents to navigate
- Limited ways to notify the public quickly during emergencies or closures
- Manual, siloed processes for board agendas and public meetings
- Recreation programs that relied on in-person and paper-based registrations
- No formal system to archive social media or digital content for compliance
- Rising requirements around ADA web accessibility and public records retention
Staff were doing their best with email lists, PDFs, and spreadsheets, but without a unified platform, the workload was heavy and residents didn’t always have a consistent experience.
The district knew it needed to modernize without overburdening its small administrative team.
The Solution: Incremental, Integrated CivicPlus Adoption
Over the course of several years, Pueblo West added seven CivicPlus solutions to create an integrated ecosystem. Each solution was chosen to solve a real need while laying the groundwork for future improvements.
1. Municipal Websites
In 2015, Pueblo West launched its first CivicPlus Municipal Website. This upgrade was transformative: The new site was mobile-friendly, easy to update, and optimized to serve as a true digital front door for residents. From utility information to board schedules, everything was brought under one roof.
The website, managed by Matt Lund’s team, serves as the central hub for publishing official information while steadily expanding through integrations like Recreation Management, Social Media Archiving and Acquia Web Governance to support residents and staff.
2. Asset Management
Three years later, the district’s Project Development Division adopted Asset Management. Staff can now log and track maintenance tasks in a central system instead of juggling spreadsheets. This has improved planning and given the district better visibility into infrastructure needs.
3. Agenda and Meeting Management
In 2019, Pueblo West rolled out Agenda and Meeting Management. Board agendas, meeting minutes, and packets are now fully digital and publicly accessible. The platform has also enabled livestreaming and archiving of meetings. This change improves both efficiency for staff and accessibility for residents.
We livestream our board meetings through CivicPlus, and now we multi-stream to Agenda and Meeting Management, Facebook, and YouTube so residents can watch on the platform that works best for them.
Matt Lund
Director of Business Administration, Pueblo West Metropolitan District
4. Recreation Management
By 2021, Pueblo West’s Parks and Recreation Department introduced Recreation Management. Families can now browse programs, register online, and pay directly through the system without having to rely on the more labor-intensive process of paper forms or office-only sign-ups. This 24/7 convenience aligns with what residents have come to expect in the digital age.
5. Mass Notification
In late 2022, Pueblo West added Mass Notification. Lund shared that within a year of activating the solution, more than 1,400 residents had subscribed to receive texts, emails, or voice alerts. The system quickly became essential for weather updates, road closures, and service delays.
Lund and his team continue to drive adoption and awareness of the mass notification system through ongoing promotions, including highlighting the service in routine mailings to resident mailboxes.
This physical outreach keeps the focus on active, sustained promotion rather than emphasizing a one-time shift from analog to digital.
Residents haven’t had anything negative to say about the system.
The public alert system has been really well received. Our board members often say it’s a great system everyone should sign up for. Public adoption over the last few years has been incredible.
Matt Lund
Director of Business Administration, Pueblo West Metropolitan District
Multiple staff members across departments are trained to send alerts, helping avoid staff shortages and delayed messages.
Emergencies are a 24/7 business, and there’s always the chance that (God forbid) someone’s phone dies and a critical alert goes unsent. Well, that’s not happening now, because we have multiple people with access.
Matt Lund
Director of Business Administration, Pueblo West Metropolitan District
6. Web Accessibility
With the goal of boosting accessibility for all residents in their community—and with accessibility standards across the country tightening—Pueblo West adopted Web Accessibility in 2024. The tool scans for compliance issues and helps staff fix content like inaccessible PDFs or missing alt text so that all residents can better access civic information and updates.
On the compliance side, we want to make sure we’re following all state and local regulations, and that our information is accessible to the public.
With CivicPlus solutions, at a minimum, we can say we’ve done our duty to make sure we’re protecting everybody’s access to public information.
Matt Lund
Director of Business Administration, Pueblo West Metropolitan District
7. Social Media Archiving
Later that same year, Pueblo West implemented Social Media Archiving. The district decided to implement this particular solution in response to a public incident where public servants were accused of deleting a comment on a social media platform.
We were accused of something we didn’t do. And some of these platforms, they don’t disclose whether a thing did or didn’t happen, or by whose hand, or whether the algorithm did it. So, Social Media Archiving was a tool we brought on as peace of mind, as a commitment to the public to ensure we’re upholding everybody’s rights.
Now, all posts and comments are automatically archived, protecting both residents’ voices and the district’s transparency.
We don’t delete anything, ever. Just having the assurance that everything that gets posted is preserved is huge.
Matt Lund
Director of Business Administration, Pueblo West Metropolitan District
The Impact and Results: Efficiency, Engagement, and Trust
Operational Efficiency
Staff now collaborate through shared digital systems instead of scattered emails or manual files. Agenda preparation, asset tracking, and recreation registrations are streamlined. Multiple people can access critical tools, eliminating single points of failure.
Using a portal system for document management and staff reports provides better accessibility and training compared to email-based processes.
Matt Lund
Director of Business Administration, Pueblo West Metropolitan District
Public Engagement
Residents benefit from real-time alerts, multi-platform meeting streams, and online registration options. The Municipal Website refresh improved navigation and mobile usability, while introducing Mass Notification created a culture of connectedness.
Trust and Transparency
The archiving system and accessibility tools demonstrate Pueblo West’s commitment to accountability. Agendas and meeting minutes are published promptly, livestreams show decisions as they happen, and social media interactions are preserved for the public record.
Actionable Steps for Other Communities
- Take an Incremental Approach
Pueblo West’s success came by layering solutions as they needed them and building a cohesive support infrastructure that meets staff and resident needs as they arise. Each adoption solved an immediate problem and created momentum for the next. - Choose an Integrated Platform
By sticking with one provider, Pueblo West avoided the headaches of juggling multiple contracts and systems. Training was easier, invoicing was simpler, and the products worked together more effectively. - Focus On People, Not Just Technology
In the end, Pueblo West’s overarching goal wasn’t to add flashy tech for its own sake. Each solution they adopted was about making life easier for staff while improving services for residents. This people-first mindset promotes adoption and impact while allowing the community to scale up and stay prepared for the future of local government.
As far as implementation goes, using CivicPlus products has not required any “real” IT work. It’s very accessible for communities of various sizes, whether they have a solid IT team or not.
Matt Lund
Director of Business Administration, Pueblo West Metropolitan District
Looking Ahead
Lund says Pueblo West is already exploring features that can help it offer more services that residents will benefit from, like online public comments tied to board agendas and expanded livestreaming options. He believes that putting a solid digital foundation in place has positioned his team to continue adding capabilities without disrupting what’s already working.
Adopting a Resident-Centered Model for Long-term Success
Over the past decade, Pueblo West Metropolitan District has built a modern, resident-centered digital ecosystem. From its first CivicPlus website in 2015 to the addition of social media archiving and accessibility tools in 2024, each step has strengthened efficiency, engagement, and trust.
The story of Pueblo West shows how a growing community of 35,512 can successfully embrace technology without overwhelming its staff or budget. Pueblo West has created a digital framework ready to serve its growing community for years to come by moving incrementally, choosing integrated solutions, and keeping the focus on its residents.