CRANBERRY TWP — The township is changing its e-notification system used by the police and public works departments to alert residents of potential hazards, traffic alerts and service problems.

The township also is upgrading the way it communicates by replacing its 20-year old telephone system as its staff has struggled to keep up with the volume of calls, voice mail and other messages.

Adam Osterrieder, Cranberry information technology director, said the township looked at a number of features when it chose its new e-mail notification system.

Those included a single sign-up, allowing customers to choose how they receive the communication, seamless connection to Facebook and Twitter, computer and mobile access to the system, and whether the system meets the Pennsylvania Safe Drinking Water Act requirements for notification of problems with the water supply.

Nixle, a formerly free e-notification system that has been used by the township for several years, has changed its business model and now will start charging municipalities for the service.

The supervisors voted Thursday to pay $17,237 for the Blackboard Connect service for a year.

In addition to becoming the township’s chosen emergency notification system, Blackboard will be a one-stop shop for residents to sign up for all township content and to specify the ways they would like to receive it.

Osterrieder said some of the features that made Blackboard Connect appealing included e-mail, voice and text capabilities, 24-hour, seven day a week access, multilingual capabilities and location based messaging.

Meanwhile, the supervisors voted last week to award two contracts totaling more than $200,000 to upgrade its system.

The supervisors approved a $15,032 contract with CDW-G of Vernon Hills, Ill., for phone software equipment and a contract with Mitel Business System of Chandler, Ariz., for $185,575 for the new telephone system.

Both contracts were bought through state purchasing consortium programs.

The contract includes about 260 new telephones for all of the township’s operations.

During May, township employees answered 13,650 incoming calls and placed 7,067 outgoing calls, according to township officials.

Ninety-six percent of those calls were between 7:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday thorough Friday.

The township also receives 6,000-plus calls per month into voice mail or other prerecorded messages.