BELLEFONTE — The recently sworn-in Centre County Board of Commissioners has hired a firm to help it review its emergency communications system and make recommendations for a new system.

Commissioners voted 3-0 on Tuesday to pay $150,000 to Mission Critical Partners Inc., of State College. A federal grant will fund $145,000 of that amount. County officials have been looking at options for upgrading the emergency communications system from analog to digital for several years.

“It’s going to be a full court press to get the 911 project off and running,” Chairman Steve Dershem said. Gene Lauri, the county’s director of criminal justice planning, said the board is making the project a priority.

Lauri said Mission Critical will look at what has been done to date and provide recommendations for what will meet the needs of responders in a way that may be more cost effective.

The move comes about four years after the county received a report from another company, L. Robert Kimball and Associates, on the system.

That company made recommendations with a price tag ranging from $20 million to $28 million.

Lauri said the hope is that price will be reduced, but the county team involved hasn’t gotten that far yet. He said the first phase may take through March.

Jim Bitting, project manager with Mission Critical, estimated the entire project could take 18 to 20 months from the time the review starts until the system is up and running.

He said the Kimball report will provide a lot of information, but some of the technology has changed since that report was done and the board considered a proposal from Motorola in November 2010.

“It could take less equipment because of the difference in technology, some of the things you may have used in an older system you might not need in a newer system, and that would reduce some of the bits and pieces that you’ll have to use to put it together,” Bitting said.

The county just received about 500 new radios that will go to fire companies. Dershem said they will be distributed over the next several months.

The radios can be used on the current analog system and a new digital system.

Dershem said two county tower sites had problems last week that were corrected. He said the system’s age makes it vulnerable to problems.

That is part of why the county has been looking at modernizing the system.

“The important thing is we get it right,” Commissioner Chris Exarchos said when asked about the timeline. “Yes, it’s urgent and a top priority. But it’s also a top priority to make sure we get it right.”

Anne Danahy can be reached at 231-4648.