“It’s a first step.”

Those were the words Warwick Fire Chief Kevin Sullivan used to describe the city’s new relationship with the East Greenwich Fire District whereby Warwick will provide dispatching service for East Greenwich.

In the bigger picture, one could ask what’s taken so long for municipalities to reach the conclusion that there are savings when they work cooperatively and provide services on a regional, rather than a single municipal basis.

The answer is obvious: As long as taxpayers were willing to foot the cost, municipal leaders are content with the status quo and not disrupting fiefdoms and well-built bureaucracies. Besides, the real savings are in cutting jobs and no one, least of all elected officials, want to be responsible for putting people out of work.

But the state and municipalities, if not the federal government, have reached a financial breaking point where dramatic changes must be made or systems will collapse.

Regionalization looks like a silver bullet, especially when one considers many cities in other states are the size of Kent County and have a regional superintendent of schools, public works department, police and fire departments. One has to believe those systems are more efficient and economical.

But it’s not that simple, as the experience of a single dispatch system for Warwick and East Greenwich fire has demonstrated. The challenge was not an issue of losing jobs or turf battles between departments: The hang-up was technical. Warwick’s 900 business and box alarms are radio operated. East Greenwich has a wire system, which needs to be linked into Warwick Fire Dispatch at a projected cost of $100,000.

So where are the savings if there are no layoffs, plus capital expenditures to boot?

The answer is in East Greenwich.

District Fire Chief John McCabe recognized it wasn’t practical to have four trained firefighters doing the job of dispatchers. If these firefighters could be used on apparatus, the town has the manpower to operate a second rescue unit and upgrade service.

At the Warwick end, Chief Sullivan assessed the situation and concluded the city’s dispatch, which is staffed by civilians, could take on the added workload. Then there was the enticement of the $100,000 East Greenwich would pay Warwick annually.

These are not big numbers in a multi-million dollar budget. It’s a beginning, a first step, as Chief Sullivan said.

Moreover, it demonstrates that attention to detail equals savings and improved services. Other fire departments should take note.