Butler County will do a full upgrade of its card-based access control system at the county prison.

The county commissioners voted Wednesday to spend nearly $50,500 from the prison's commissary fund for the upgrade to be done by Com-Tec of Greenville, Wis.

John Campbell, director of facilities and operations, said the prison's system is obsolete — saying it is nine years old and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

When the county did an upgrade to its touch screens at the prison, the card access system started to have problems. Currently, the prison cannot issue new access cards.

“We're starting to have some issues,” Campbell said.

The commissioners also:

• Voted to approve spending $15,600 in Act 13 Marcellus Shale natural gas Legacy Fund money — which is meant to be used for parks and recreation purposes — to help build five miles of mountain bike trail at Alameda Park.

Gary Pinkerton, director of parks and recreation, said construction already has started on the trail, and a full-time trail contractor is doing a lot of the work. He also said that volunteers from the Pittsburgh Trail Council have done about 138 hours of work on the trail, building two bridges.

He also said the trail council has raised an additional $15,000 for work on the trail. Pinkerton said this stretch of trails should be done by the end of November.

• Approved agreements with Dilworth Paxson LLP of Philadelphia and Phone Recovery Services LLC of New Jersey to help recover 911 fees due to the county from telecommunications companies.

County solicitor Mike English said telecommunications companies collect fees from customers that are earmarked to go to the county to help fund its 911 operations.

Because of new technology, English said that newer phone lines installed in large buildings can carry several phone numbers. However, he said the communications companies are collecting fees only for one phone line rather than all of the numbers that the line carries.

He said there is no guarantee that there will be a recovery of funds, but said if there is, it could be in the seven-figure range.

Under the agreement, he said the county will not pay the contractors unless there is a recovery for the county. English said the payments to the contractors would be capped at 40 percent of the recovered amount.