MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Since 2012, the Meridian Township Fire Department has teamed up with other local fire stations to help save money.

"It has been a battle, since the towers went down in '01 believe me, we just haven't had the revenue coming in and the last really about really four years now. Our fire departments calls have gone up 1,000 calls a year, so we are very stretched," said Meridian Township's Fire Chief, Fred Cowper.

But the Meridian Township Fire Department has yet to miss a single call all thanks to its 5 neighboring stations and their money-saving efforts.

"Six local communities in the capital region have pooled together and brainstormed how they can best provide services to all of the residents in the area," said Meridian Township's Finance Director, Gretchen Gomolka.

It's called The Shared Service Initiative.

Stations collaborate to save money, and collaborate to provide better services for residents at a lower cost.

"The Shared Service Program is definitely great for the Greater Lansing area. It's a way for a lot of the metro departments like Meridian Township, East Lansing City, Lansing City, Delhi Township, Delta Township, Lansing Township. It's a cost saving program, we all share a lot of the same tools we do a lot of the same training," said Part-Time Firefighter/Paramedic, Trevor Baker.

But along with the Shared Service Initiative, the Meridian Township Fire Department continues to budget in other ways too. Such as using grants, rather than tax dollars and hiring on more part-time firefighters rather than full-time.

If a part-time firefighter is put on staff every day for a year, it will only cost the station around 100,000, but if a career fire-fighter is on staff every day for a year it would cost around 400,000.

But although these fire stations continue to work together, there is no future plan to combine all six stations into one.