The Monroe County commissioners approved a $4 million agreement with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency to distribute funds to 10 county 911 centers including the Monroe County 911 Center.

Commissioner John Moyer said that the only county in the state that does not own its 911 center is Monroe, but it has an agreement with PEMA to distribute funding and is the hub for 911 calls.

“For a 10-county area, all of the 911 calls come into Monroe County and are dispatched to the other counties, and that is part of the improvement on that program,” Moyer said.

In the 911 Statewide Interconnectivity Funding Grant Agreement, Monroe County has agreed to distribute $4,273,578 to 911 centers in the 10-county area, which includes the Monroe County 911 Center. The money from the grant will help the 911 centers pay for technology upgrades and related equipment.

Commissioner John Christy said that dispatch centers and fire departments are also in the middle of a multi-million dollar conversion of their systems from analog to digital for their radio systems.

“The fire companies are dispatched through the control center and digital is presumed to be far superior to analog,” Christy said. “On top of the $4 million that we got, there’s also a need for approximately $7 million for that conversion at some point in time.”