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Page County board considering purchase of.(Clarinda) -- The Page County Sheriff's Office is considering using a new tool to increase interactions with the public.At its regular meeting late Tuesday afternoon, the Page County Board of Supervisors met with Chief Deputy Aaron Riddle to discuss the possible purchase of "The Sheriff App" for the sheriff's office.Riddle says several counties across the state have begun using the app to compile a variety of services and information from the sheriff's office.He says that can range from inmate and jail information to warrants and documents related to weapon permits."We can put a bunch of resources available to the public so that they can make contact with the sheriff's office and it kind of takes everything that we offer and puts it into one place that they can go to look," said Riddle."It allows us to give push notifications to people and things like that--it's a way to engage with the community and we currently don't have anything that really does that." In addition to a place to provide tips, Riddle says the app could also provide direct links to sites such as the Iowa Sex Offender Registry.Additionally, he says the apps can be set up to send push notifications about weather or road closures."Like the other night when the storms were going through Glenwood, this was giving a tornado watch, tornado warning, all those things going through, so it gives you some functionality with that," said Riddle."It also gives the ability where if a road is shut down or something like that, we would have the ability to push a notification out to every app saying, 'hey, this road is closed due to whatever the case may be.'" In terms of financing the purchase, Riddle says some counties have used dollars through the opioid settlement fund.Since the apps are customizable, Riddle says they can provide links and contact information for various public health agencies in the county, ranging from Waubonsie Mental Health Services to local hospitals."Whatever resources we feel like tying to it, we can kind of tie to it, and the best part of it is that opioid money can pay for it, which I think is a great benefit to the county," said Riddle."Because we can point people towards those opioid resources that we have available within the county and it really makes a big difference for getting those people in touch with the resources that they need." Riddle says the cost of the app in the first year would be $12,000 and then nearly $7,000 annually for the second year and beyond.He notes that the county could also purchase the first three years at once for $23,000.Riddle says once the opioid dollars are no longer available, they will re-evaluate whether to continue providing the app within the sheriff's department budget."If we're seeing value out of it then it'd be something that we would maybe try to work in our budget and if it's something where we go 'hey, we tried it and people aren't engaging with it,' we'd re-evaluate where we're at on it," said Riddle."But like I said, I talked to the sheriff of Hamilton County.He said that he has a population very similar to ours and I think he has 6,000 downloads of (the app)." Some other counties in KMAland that currently have a similar app include Mills, Ringgold, and Adams.The board is expected to consider formal action on the purchase using opioid settlement funds at its regular meeting next week.