My House Is Your House

"As local budgets shrink and expenses rise, more and more Metro Detroit communities are learning how to get by with a little help from their friends. Plymouth Township had a brand-new, empty fire station. Next door, the city of Plymouth had more firefighters and fire trucks than its old firehouses could hold. The communities decided to do something almost unheard of in Metro Detroit at the time — merge into a single, regional fire service, giving up a measure of local control in return for a savings of millions."