BLACKSBURG -- Come July, the town's emergency services dispatch center will get funds for a new 911 computer system and new staff thanks to a meals tax increase and a state technology grant program.

It's been about 10 years since the Blacksburg Police Department Communications Center's 911 computer system was upgraded, Chief Kim Crannis said.

And in that time, the current push-button system has become all but obsolete.

"We can't get parts for it anymore," Crannis said.

Given tight town budgets in recent years, finding $240,000 for the upgrade could have proved difficult, however. So the department applied for and recently received a $150,000 matching grant through the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, Crannis said.

The coming 911 system upgrade will include new hardware and software and can accommodate technologies such as text messaging, police spokesman Lt. Joe Davis said.

To get the grant, the town had to come up with $90,000 in matching funds, which it did April 22 when the council approved its 2008-09 budget.

That budget, which included a 1 percent meals tax increase, will also pay for a new dispatcher and four new police officers for the department.

It's been 26 years since the town added new dispatcher positions and 14 years since new police positions were added. Meanwhile, the town's population has grown from 39,473 in 2000 to an estimated 44,900 in 2007.

The communications center operates 24 hours a day out of the Blacksburg Police Department and is staffed by eight dispatchers and one administrator, according to department records.

In 2006, the center handled 85,102 telephone calls, including 10,169 calls on 911 emergency lines. Dispatchers also monitor 10 emergency radio frequencies for police, fire and rescue.

Ideally, at least two dispatchers would be on duty for all shifts. But under current staffing, time off for illness, vacation or training often leaves only one dispatcher on duty.

"It occurs entirely too often," Crannis said. "We don't want to be at minimum staffing."

A departmental staffing study released in October showed that to meet federal police staffing guidelines, the department needs four new dispatchers and 11 new police officers.