Butler County will explore the possibility of a shared computer aided dispatch system with three surrounding counties for its 911 center.

The county commissioners on Wednesday voted to approve a memorandum with Mission Critical Parters of Port Matilda to explore this possibility. Butler would join Lawrence, Mercer and Venango counties, with Venango holding the contract.

Butler County would pay $28,000, with that money coming from money provided by the state Emergency Management Association.

Emergency services director Steve Bicehouse said if it is decided to go through with this shared system, it would allow the county to switch over to another county’s dispatch center if an outage occurred here.

“We’ll be able to truly have a backup 911 center,” Bicehouse said.

Currently, it the CAD system goes down, dispatchers use pen and paper to dispatch.

“It’s not as easy,” Bicehouse said.

That is because the CAD system gives instructions on which fire departments and EMS services to dispatch. However, Bicehouse said most of his dispatchers have been around long enough to be able to decide most of the time which departments to send.

Additionally, the maintenance costs of a joint system could be shared among the counties.

Bicehouse said the county already is setting up a shared phone system, and a shared CAD system would be the next step. If the CAD system goes through, the only thing necessary to have a full backup system is a radio system that can be shared.

“That’s the next and final step,” Bicehouse said.