The cost for replacing outdated microwave link equipment that is crucial for 911 service is a little less than Carbon County initially planned.

On Thursday, the commissioners amended a proposal with Radio Maintenance Inc. of Reading for new microwave link equipment. The cost of the project decreased from $338,646.08 to $286,359.58.A microwave link is a communications system that uses a beam of radio waves in the microwave frequency range to transmit information between two fixed locations.Since the microwave system transfers radio calls from one tower to the other, it is a crucial part in the 911 system.The decrease is based on one connection tower site. The equipment link from Big Boulder to the Bear Mountain 911 tower site will be installed following the erection of a new tower at Big Boulder in 2018.Connections will also be made from the Broad Mountain to the Bear Mountain 911 tower site.In July, Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that the reason for the upgrade is the existing equipment is obsolete and the county can no longer get parts to repair it.Nothstein said at the time that the project, slated for later in the year, was pushed up because of the problems with the radio frequencies that the county has been experiencing.This project now jumps in front of the computer-aided dispatch project that will take place at the 911 center.The project is expected to be completed within the next few months.In other matters, the commissioners voted to approve the 2017 in-lieu-of-taxes distribution from the City of Bethlehem to school districts and townships for property owned by the Bethlehem Water Authority. Jim Thorpe Area School District will receive $8,528.30; Palmerton Area School District, $5,046.86; Penn Forest Township, $355.34; Towamensing Township, $304.29; Lower Towamensing Township, $4.70; and Carbon County, $6,118.10.