Westmoreland County commissioners plan to spend nearly $500,000 to upgrade the 7-year-old computer software that operates the emergency dispatching system at the Department of Public Safety to make it compatible with newer technology.

The commissioners Thursday awarded a $499,512 contract to Intergraph Solutions Group of Madison, Ala., for the upgrades to the computer-aided software that helps dispatchers respond to emergencies.

“It allows for the accuracy of the information. It’s like the heart and soul for the 9-1-1 operator. It gets all of the available information before them within seconds,” said Roland “Buddy” Mertz, director of the public safety department.

The system gathers data from a variety of sources “” phone numbers; addresses of an emergency; the police, fire and emergency medical services to be notified “”and displays it on a dispatcher’s computer screen, Mertz said.

The county has experienced problems with the system in dispatching supporting units to the scene of an emergency, not in sending responders to the wrong address, Mertz said.

He hopes the firm can begin the work by summer. Because the dispatching system can’t be shut down during the process, Mertz said he hopes Intergraph Solutions will download all data in the county’s emergency dispatching system and install it into the new system before bringing it online. The process could take up to a few months, Mertz said.

Mertz said the county will have to upgrade the computer servers that store the data.

While the upgrades are necessary, Commissioner Charles Anderson said the county has had to transfer money to the public safety department to cover the cost of the new software.

“We have to rob Peter to pay Paul,” Anderson said.Commissioner Ted Kopas said the state is to blame by failing to update the formula for funding emergency dispatching services through the 9-1-1 system.

“We can’t jeopardize public safety because of the state’s inaction,” Kopas said.

Land line phone users pay about $1.25 per month and cellphone users pay $1 a month to fund the 9-1-1 system.

An increase in funding for 9-1-1 dispatching systems is a top priority for the state association of county commissioners, Anderson said.