“We had a press conference Monday because we felt it was appropriate because we had so many victories and we wanted to disclose those to the general public,” Fire Chief of Meridian Township Fred Cowper said. “We are now covering northern Alaiedon Township. They don’t have a fire department, and they rely on neighbors.”

Mainly started because of a report prepared by the Plante Moran accounting firm, the cooperation began to save money and share resources, Cowper said. The report, which was funded by a grant provided by the Michigan Municipal League, explored ways to share services that could include a full consolidation.

“We wanted to capture some grant money because of the things we were doing to work together,” Cowper said. “We’re kind of reaching the goals for the state to provide cost effectiveness and become way more efficient.”

Additionally, this cooperation will increase response time by now ignoring certain boundaries that, in the past, have prevented the nearest fire department from answering a call.

“We pay really close attention to borders, and we wouldn’t cross (our border) unless we were asked to,” Fire Chief of Delhi Charter Township Richard Royston said. “This will make it common practice (that) if there’s a fire that Delhi assists, Lansing will be assisting us. It was put in place to provide better service and eliminate the need to stretch our resources beyond a reasonable amount.”

The East Lansing Police Department, or ELPD, has been doing something similar to this for years, ELPD Lt. Larry Sparks said. The department has a joint special response team and they work with the MSU, Meridian Township and Ingham County police departments to respond to any kind of major incident.

Sparks said he most recently could recall an accident on U.S. 127 where the ELPD and MSU police worked together to process the scene.

“You share manpower so you don’t have to commit all your resources to a single incident,” Sparks said. “You have a team instead of providing them all on your own.”