BELLEFONTE –In light of Tuesday’s municipal elections, the Centre County Commissioners’ weekly meeting featured a condensed agenda.

The board tackled several pressing matters, including improvements to 911 communications, aligning a drug and alcohol contract with federal grant timelines and revising county office schedules.

911 Emergency

Communications

Centre County Director of Emergency Communications Norm Spackman, II requested approval of a proposed contract with Mission Critical Partners, a Port Matilda-based consulting and IT services firm that helps clients strengthen and modernize their communications.

Under the agreement, Mission Critical Partners would conduct workforce and service optimization, as well as a telephone line assessment for the county’s 911 Center.

“We will have Mission Critical staff do a review of the extra responsibilities added over time to the 911 Center staff and determine what fits or does not fit within the primary mission of answering 911 calls and dispatching emergency services in the shortest amount of time,” Spackman said.

They will also review the current administrative telephone lines and determine options for replacing the outdated phone system.

The contract total is $45,500 for the period of Dec. 1, 2025 to Nov. 30, 2026.

“We do know Centre County — and a lot of other counties throughout the Commonwealth — are having difficulty both staffing 911 and responding to citizens’ needs, which are ever increasing,” said Commissioner Mark Higgins, who serves on the statewide 911 Advisory Board. “We’ve had now numerous incidents just in the last year or so where we’ve had a major incident in Centre County and have received hundreds of phone calls in a half-hour to an hour-long period.”

Because there are only a limited number of staff answering phones around the clock, the county hopes to identify ways to improve efficiency and better manage incoming calls.

“There’s a lot of new technology out there, and we want to see if we can leverage any of that in the future,” said Spackman.

He noted that artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly common tool in 911 systems, particularly in handling non-emergency calls, which make up the majority of the calls the 911 Centre receives.

Contract Extension for Drug and Alcohol Services

Cathy Arbogast, program administrator for Centre County Drug and Alcohol, asked the board to approve an addendum to the county’s contract with Millerton Acquisition Sub, LLC, doing business as Bradford Recovery Center. The addendum would extend the current agreement by six months for fiscal year 2024-25 to align with the county’s grant agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.

“We’ve done this with all of them to match until the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs can update our grant agreement for the new fiscal year,” said Arbogast.

The grant total is estimated at $2,500, with the expense expected to be covered by federal funds. The extension period runs from July 1 through Dec. 31, 2025.

County Government

Calendar

Several schedule changes are planned for Centre County Government and the Board of Commissioners this month.

County offices will be closed Tuesday, Nov. 11, in observance of Veterans Day.

Additionally, the Nov. 25 Board of Commissioners meeting has been canceled so the commissioners can attend the Pennsylvania County Commissioners Association Fall Conference, being held this year at The Hotel Hershey in Dauphin County.

In other business commissioners:

— Approved a contract with Aaron Bailey for snow removal services at the Philipsburg MDJ office. The contract total is not to exceed $8,500 for the period of Nov. 4, 2025 to April 1, 2026. The charge is per-incident.

— Approved their consent agenda.

— Reported they met in Executive Session on Nov. 3 to discuss a legal matter.