The operational merger of the Westland and Wayne fire departments officially ended Feb. 1 but that doesn't mean the split is acrimonious.

Wayne Mayor Susan Rowe and Westland Mayor William Wild each attended both city council meetings last week to talk about the split and leave the door open to future partnerships.

"I just more or less wanted to tell them (the Westland Council) the rationale for leaving the Wayne-Westland Fire Association," Rowe said. "It was good while it lasted. The end game was to be a fire authority, and that was not going to happen. We needed to look at other options."

With a fire district with Westland off the table, Rowe said she recommended that the Wayne Council end the merger seven months early to provide time to look at options for the fire department.

Rowe stressed that the end of the merger was not a failure. She noted the financial savings both cities saw from the merger and sharing a chief — for Wayne that mean $150,000 savings in wages and benefits from the chief and $869,000 from not having to fill firefighters positions due to the merged staffing.

But Rowe also noted the  benefits derived from the leadership of then-chief Michael Reddy and the shared command staff that allowed adequate staffing in both communities. The communities are continuing to share the services of Fire Chief Michael Stradtner.

"Firefighters from both communities were able to learn from each other, work cooperatively and develop a rapport  between the two departments that will be long lasting and will serve to enhance future endeavors when both are called upon for extraordinary incidents," Rowe said.