Apple County commissioners discussed whether to contract for a county-owned emergency notification mobile app that would centralize weather alerts, damage reporting, road-closure notices and departmental information for residents.

Commissioner Sellers, who presented the proposal, said the app would be free to download and would let users toggle notifications by city or topic. "It's basically like a notification system on your phone," Sellers said, adding that the county would own the app and control the content. He told the board the first-year cost, including city participation, would be $16,609 with an annual subscription of $7,608.35 and that the initial contract would run three years.

The app, Sellers said, can rebroadcast National Weather Service messages; that capability is included in the vendor's fee and accounts for roughly $900 of the annual cost. He said the county and participating cities (Baxley, Searcy and Graham) could each have submenu views so users can receive only the notifications they want. "We'll have a tab on there where they click City of Baxley and it pulls up basically the same sub menus," Sellers said.

Sellers described other features under consideration: push weather alerts, school-closing links that point to school websites, maps of power outages provided by utility outage feeds, damage-reporting forms that could be used to document storm impacts for FEMA or state reimbursement, shelter-location listings and event/tourism information in partnership with the chamber of commerce. He said the county would establish internal processes for who publishes which notifications.

Board members asked about reliability and technical support. A commissioner asked whether the vendor provides 24-hour IT service in the event of outages; Sellers replied that physical and financial services are part of the annual fee and that the vendor would monitor the system. A commissioner asked whether the app requires personal information; Sellers said it does not link to personal phone numbers or require personal data.

Sellers said the county hopes, if the board chooses to proceed, to have an app in place by Sept. 1 and that the county would attempt to seek reimbursement from the nearby nuclear plant or other sources. He emphasized the objective of having a single place for residents to receive timely, push-based notices instead of searching multiple websites and social feeds.

The transcript records a motion to approve the contract; the recorded transcript does not include the outcome of a recorded vote on the app contract in the public portion made available here.

Why this matters: Commissioners framed the app as a tool to get timely storm and infrastructure information to residents during weather events and other county operations. If implemented, the county would centrally manage official alerts and could expand the app to include multiple county offices and participating cities.