Committee members learned Daviess County residents will soon have access to the phone application, which is expected to greatly enhance the county’s ability to directly communicate information in emergency situations.
The application is scheduled to go live June 1, and there will be no cost for residents to register.
“I’m over the moon; I think it’s going to be great,” said County Commissioner Janie Marksberry, chair of the committee. “It’s a good way to get out more boil water advisories, for instance. A lot of times, you don’t know about it until you’ve already had your coffee in the morning. You know, it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, we had a glass of water.’ So I think that’s going to be a huge piece for people.
“And then the tornado warnings, of course, we want to be able to get those out anytime we can and alert people and try to save lives.”
Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) is FEMA’s centralized national system for sending emergency alerts to the public, and it enables authorized officials to send a single, authenticated message to multiple communication channels simultaneously, including mobile phones (WEA), radio/TV (EAS), and NOAA Weather Radio.
It also gives officials the ability to send out notices about any matters of interest to the public.
In addition to county-wide notifications to the user base, the app has the capability of polygon geo-targeting selection to narrow alerts to specific areas for cases that would affect only those areas, such as road closures and boil water advisories.
During Thursday’s meeting, Jeremy Smith, Daviess County’s public safety director, noted that while the system can send information about non-emergency situations, he recommended it not be used beyond sending emergency notices.
Smith previously estimated the cost of the service at approximately $6,700 annually. Daviess Fiscal Court agreed to a three-year contract.
“Some of the other numbers were $25,000 to $45,000 a year,” said Smith previously. “I have searched and searched and searched, and I contacted three different entities that used (Regroup), with one almost the exact same size county as us, and they loved it. He said they can’t complain and have been using it for four years, and that it does all he needs.”
Smith said there will be a learning curve as county officials get the system up to speed, but for it to have the impact expected, county residents must sign up.
“They need to opt in, though; it doesn’t work if they don’t opt in,” Marksberry said. “The citizens that want it, of course, will opt in, and please give us a little grace and patience. It’ll probably be a little bit of a learning curve while we work through it. But they’ve worked hard on it and got a good price.”
The county will post a QR code on its website either Friday or Monday that will take residents to the mobile app’s registration page.
“We’re very fortunate to have it,” Marksberry said.
© 2026 the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
