Sheriff's Office app coming

Hancock County Sheriff Michael Cortez plans to have an app available by fall with information for the public on the Sheriff's Office and addiction recovery and mental health resources. The app will take crime tips and display the jail's inmate list, sex offender registration information and give help for obtaining conceal carry weapon permits. Information available on the Sheriff's Office website will be part of the app, Cortez said. The app could notify the public about traffic accidents and crime scenes, and ask people to avoid those areas while deputies process the scenes, he said. The addiction recovery and mental health components will be provided through the County Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services and Family Resource Center. Setting up the app will cost $26,000. Cortez is hoping to help fund that with a $13,000 grant from the Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation. The other $13,000 would come from the local share of settlement money the state was awarded from claims that pharmaceutical companies and distributors made Ohio's opioid overdose death rates among the nation's worst.