Credit to Hanover for continuing to stay on top of the possibility of consolidating fire departments. As we have already seen with the North Lake Fire District, which is made up of Mayville, Dewittville and Hartfield, there are benefits.

This week, town Supervisor Lou Pelletter reported he attended a webinar to learn more about the needs of fire departments — such as declining enrollment, updated training, and ever changing regulations — and how to meet those needs through consolidation.

Pelletter received permission from the Town Board to enter into an agreement with the provider of the webinar to serve as a consultant as the Town pursues district consolidation. Pelletter stated previously his hope for consolidating the districts is to share costs and equipment needs evenly across the region, rather than each department needing to maintain its own budgets and raise funds each year.

In this case, Silver Creek, Hanover, Irving, Sunset Bay, and Forestville would be under one umbrella. That makes sense and can follow the model put forth by the units in the center of the county.