Pottawatomie County, KS, by the Numbers
25,790
Residents
158
Public Records Requests per Month
51
JustFOIA Users Across 59 Departments
$1,120
Estimated Monthly Revenue from Lien Requests
Contents
The Town of Springerville is nestled in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. Its 1700 residents are enthusiastic about the town’s beautiful natural surroundings, community markets, high school sports, and especially civic life—with town council meetings an important source of connection and involvement.
Kelsi Miller has served the Town of Springerville for over 10 years, first as its Finance Clerk, and now as Town Clerk.
“We have a really great community, and we have great leadership and elected officials,” she said. “It’s great to be a part of this town’s growth.”
But for several years, Kelsi admitted, “We didn’t really have a website that we were proud of.”
Before GovBuilt: Website Issues for Staff and Residents
The Town of Springerville’s site was hosted by a local vendor that didn’t specialize in government websites.
Their website wasn’t doing its job of keeping residents engaged and informed, helping them complete transactions, and putting their best foot forward in the world.
Inability to Make Updates
Springerville staff didn’t have any backend access to their website. If anyone on staff needed to add, change, or remove content, they had to email the requested changes to Kelsi, who sent them to the vendor, who might or might not be able to make the changes the same day.
“We have deadlines for posting meeting agendas, stuff like that, that we would try to squeeze in and they wouldn’t get posted, putting us out of compliance,” Kelsi said.
It also meant they had no way to alert the community to time-sensitive issues like a broken water line.
Poor Functionality
“Our old website was purely informational,” Kelsi said. “It didn’t have a lot of government functions like forms, accepting applications, or GIS. It was set up for a small business rather than running a town.”
It made for a poor digital citizen experience.
“If someone wanted to fill out a form, they had to download it via PDF, print it and then scan and email it to one of us.”
Lack of Professionalism
Kelsi was constantly fielding calls from residents who were disgruntled because they couldn’t find the information they needed or because the site had broken links.
“And it had many colors, it was so bright and flashy and bizarre that it took away the professionalism,” Kelsi said.
Below: Screenshots of Springerville’s website before the redesign.
Choosing GovBuilt: Functionality, Design, and Price
Three months before the Town of Springerville’s contract with their website vendor ended, a happy coincidence occurred: A GovBuilt Account Executive moved into the area. He came through Springerville “just to check things out,” Kelsi said.
“He had no idea that our contract was getting ready to expire, he’d just gone to our website prior to coming through town. When he visited, he walked into our building and said, ‘I think I can help you guys.’”
Kelsi listened to what he had to say—and liked it. Of course, for such an important project, they couldn’t pick someone just because they walked through the door at the right time. So, they put together a website committee and issued an RFQ with upwards of 25 responses.
Three factors made GovBuilt stand out: Functionality, design, and price.
Kelsi and the rest of the committee knew that they needed the government-specific functionalities that their previous site lacked: alerts, calendars, and agendas, not to mention the ability to update the site themselves.
They also appreciated the flexibility of a GovBuilt website design. While many government website vendors lock into a templated design, GovBuilt accommodates the needs and preferences of their community.
And the price made sense for a town of their size, so they signed the contract with GovBuilt.
Crafting the Vision
Kelsi had only the beginnings of a vision for the new site: “I wanted more black and white, more professionalism, easier to find links.”
Past that, they weren’t certain what they wanted the site to look like. But the GovBuilt project management team talked through possibilities and considerations. The team worked with the town’s website committee to create a vision board based on other websites that Springerville liked.
One website they drew inspiration from was Saline County, which was also designed by GovBuilt. “We liked its simplicity, combined with those pops of color.”
Springerville chose black and gold, the colors of the local high school, as the primary theme of the site. Along with this, it used a simplified, black-and-white logo created by a designer that GovBuilt recommended.
They also were able to factor in their community’s unique needs.
“Demographically, we have an older community here,” Kelsi said. “We wanted things to be simple. We wanted the extra capabilities, but we needed to make it as simple and user-friendly as possible because we’re not a super techie community.”
Another consideration: Being remote in the mountains, many residents also have slower or more limited internet connectivity. “There were some great websites we looked at with cool intro videos, but that slows the site down too much for our community.”
GovBuilt partnered with the committee to design a straightforward and functional homepage that invitingly showcases the town’s pride in its natural beauty.
During the site’s design and implementation, the GovBuilt team always kept Kelsi and the committee in the loop: “We never questioned where we were in the project. We met once a week to share progress. And they gave us tasks to do as well, but it was very simple.”
Once or twice, Kelsi wasn’t able to complete her own to-dos on time—but the GovBuilt team made it work.
“We would have launched early, had I not had those couple hiccups.”
The project took about five months from start to finish—right in line with the estimate Kelsi was given at the beginning.
“The Council Likes It. The Community Likes It.”
In the months since its launch, Kelsi has seen the website benefit both her internal team and the broader community.
Government-Specific Functions
Springerville’s GovBuilt site has all the government-specific modules that their old site lacked.
Gone are the days of meeting agendas and minutes not making it onto the site before the deadline.
“I think that’s probably where I’ve got the most positive feedback is on our agendas and minutes page. The Council likes it. The community likes it. It just makes it easy,” Kelsi said.
Citizens no longer have to email her forms about issues like code compliance or agenda requests—they can all do so in their Advanced Forms Center, which automatically routes completed forms to the right staff member.
Easier Navigation
The new site design makes it easy for residents to find information and complete transactions.
In addition to the main navigation menu, the site has large, easy-to-locate “Quick Links” to their most frequently visited pages.
“It’s completely slowed down on my call volume. Can you send me this form? Can you send me this, this, this, and this?’ Because now they can find it on the site.”
Control Over Content
Not only does Kelsi have full control over the site’s content, but she’s also saving time by giving department heads the ability to maintain their own pages. However, they don’t have unlimited access to the site.
“I don’t have to worry about ‘oops,’ like someone accidentally changing the fee schedule because departments only have access to what they need access to,” Kelsi said.
A Website to be Proud of
“This website is something we’re super proud of,” Kelsi said. A far cry from the broken links and lack of professionalism they had before, their new site showcases what Kelsi and the residents of Springerville love about their town.
Is it time for your website to:
- Reflect what you love about your community?
- Meet the needs of your specific demographics?
- Provide the tools to keep citizens informed and engaged?
Fill out the form below to contact GovBuilt today!