BUTLER TWP — Butler Township’s three volunteer fire companies will each receive about the same amount of money from the township as last year, after township commissioners voted Monday night to split up their annual contribution using the same distribution formula as in 2016.

The percentage split of 56-22-22 means that Fire District 3 will receive the lion’s share of the $348,423 up for grabs from the township this year. The money, which comes from 2.524 mills of real estate tax that is designated for fire protection, is disbursed in quarterly payments to the fire companies and also includes about $115,000 that comes from the state. That money is part of a program that gives money to nearly 2,000 firefighter associations.

Commissioners voted on the annual disbursement after representatives of each fire company — Fire District 3, Station 6 and Station 7 — spoke about their departments’ expected expenditures for 2017, as well as their workloads and potential challenges.

Those include membership woes and impending building maintenance work at Station 7, said Kevin Smith, the president of that fire company; building maintenance work at Station 6, according to firefighter Ron Kastelic; and deciding whether to replace some aging equipment at Fire District 3, according to Assistant Chief Dave Bestwick.

All the companies said a major concern for them going forward was expenses associated with the county’s adoption of a new 911 radio system, as the federal government prepares to sell off the frequencies that are currently being used by emergency responders.

Smith said Station 6 was expecting to spend about $30,000 to upgrade its radio equipment, and Bestwick said the cost for Fire District 3, which has to replace about 70 pagers in addition to radio equipment, was projected at around $74,000.

County officials have pledged to shoulder about 75 percent of the cost of radio system upgrades for volunteer fire departments around Butler County, but fire officials said the remaining 25 percent being picked up by the departments was still a larger-than-expected expense.

“We knew this was coming and we did have some money set aside,” said Bestwick. “But we did not anticipate (needing) that much.”

In 2016, the departments responded to 788 incidents including 322 fires and 148 vehicle accidents.

Bestwick said Fire District 3 was the primary responder to 496, or about 63 percent, of those calls.