CICERO, N.Y. -- Five fire departments are inside the Town of Cicero. Cicero One and Two, South Bay, North Syracuse, Bridgeport and Brewerton. They're talking consolidation. Something the majority of fire chiefs aren't fond of.

"I understand how important it is for each department to have their identity," said Chet Dudzinski, Cicero Town Supervisor. "And the people within that area, they know the firemen personally. So when there is a problem, when they do call, when somebody shows up, they feel a lot more comfortable when they see somebody that their familiar with."

The committee, spearheaded by Brewerton Fire Chief Michael Stassi, is still far from deciding if all departments will function as one. Right now, they're looking for better insurance policies to save cash and if they can buy more to save more, that's good, too.

"Any department that's going to be buying a bulk package of say gear, gloves, goods, will send an email to each department and try to jump on their buying power," Stassi said.

Stassi says all five stations function just fine with a budget of $1.6 million.

"We're on the bottom bracket throughout the whole county as far as the cost factor. That's a good thing," Stassi said.

It's no secret that our local economy is suffering. Everywhere economies are suffering. In this, Dudzinski says if there is a consolidation taxpayers will save money, but safety still needs to be considered.

"You never want to sacrifice the response time for any of the fire departments or the EMS or NAVAC or anything else. You want to make sure, like I mentioned before, that you provide the best service with the least amount of money spent," Dudzinski said.

Stassi says it could be a year before any solid decisions are made.