The county commissioners on Wednesday, July 19, approved a contract with a vendor to process applications online for licenses to carry guns.

The contract with Permitium LLC of North Carolina comes at no cost to the county, but provides an option for county residents applying for gun carry licenses, Sheriff Mike Slupe said.

Permitium will charge $5 for each application, a 30-cent fee for using a credit card and a transaction fee of 3.3% of the total.

Applications can be filled out online and must include photos of the front and back of the applicant’s driver’s license. If the application is approved, the applicant will receive a phone call, email or text, usually the next day, informing them to go to the sheriff’s office to be photographed and sign a form to obtain the license, Slupe said.

He said the application system currently in use sometimes gets backed up resulting in delays in processing applications. The sheriff’s office processes about 8,000 gun carry applications a year, Slupe said.

A link to Permitium’s website will be added to the county website. Slupe said 31 other counties in the state use the Permitium system.