Two recent glitches with the Butler County (Penn.) emergency dispatch system may signal that the county needs to act faster on an upgrade, Butler County Commissioner Bill McCarrier said.

“Maybe we need to move it up a year or two rather than waiting until 2016 or 2017,” McCarrier said.

Steve Bicehouse, director of Butler County Emergency Services, estimated that upgrading portions of the dispatch system, parts of which are at least 10 years old, could cost $2.6 million. Motorola won’t support software for dispatch consoles after 2016, he said.

“I think it brings to (commissioners’) attention that we have some challenges down the road that we need to address in a long-term plan,” said Bicehouse. “It just tells us we need to move a little quicker than what we thought we did.”

Bicehouse said the county could explore sharing a radio system with a neighboring county to cut costs.

“We know we can’t stand alone anymore. It’s too expensive,” Bicehouse said.

Switching to a new emergency generator nearly two weeks ago may have caused a power surge that resulted in problems on Sept. 19 and 20, Bicehouse said.

One of four fire/emergency medical services dispatch frequencies became weak and staticky early Sept. 19. The county had other available frequencies, and dispatch traffic was light overnight, Bicehouse said. A technician fixed the problem in less than an hour. About noon Sept. 20, police began notifying emergency dispatchers that the frequency used to dispatch fire and ambulance companies was covered with static, Bicehouse said.

Alarms also sounded that the strength of the signal had dropped, Bicehouse added.

The equipment on a transmission tower outside the 9-1-1 center at the Sunnyview complex in Butler Township apparently malfunctioned, Bicehouse said.

Dispatchers could talk to police, fire and ambulance companies by radio, but the frequency used to dispatch ambulance and fire crews to emergency calls flickered on and off.

As a precaution, the county advised fire and ambulance crews about 12:30 p.m. to report to their stations so that they could be dispatched by phone. Dispatchers followed up the call with a text message, which is standard procedure.

Emergency officials aren’t eager to dispatch crews primarily through texting, Bicehouse said.

“Texting is not 100 percent reliable,” Bicehouse said. “It’s all dependent on the cellular carrier.”

Police still received information on laptops in their vehicles, and 9-1-1 callers could still talk to a dispatcher.

Crews finished repairing the dispatch equipment by 8:15 p.m. Saturday.

In all, Bicehouse said, dispatchers made 30 calls to send fire and EMS companies to reported emergencies.

“There were no delays in service,” Bicehouse said. “We were lucky on the fire side, in that it was a light day.”

Cranberry EMS received five dispatches by phone during the eight-hour period, said executive director Jeff Kelly.

“It’s a little bit of a concern that the system continues to go down,” Kelly said. “What’s the problem that keeps breaking, and what’s the backup plan? Other localities have secondary and tertiary dispatch centers. Maybe that’s one of the things we need to look at.”

A monthly $1 surcharge tacked onto cellphone bills won’t cover the costs of upgrading the dispatch equipment, only salaries and upgrading equipment directly related to wireless technology, Bicehouse said. Impact fees collected from natural gas drilling companies, however, could be used he said.

McCarrier said the county could use money from the $20.3 million sale of the Sunnyview Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center, though other projects, including a new office building adjacent to the government center and construction of a district judge office in Cranberry, are competing for that money.