Emilia Teasdale reports in The Columbia Paper that Chatham Fire Department 1st Asst. Chief John Howe said July 12 that the department is in preliminary discussions with the Ghent Fire Company about consolidating into one fire district. Currently, Chatham, Ghent, and Kinderhook towns contract with the Village of Chatham for fire protection, with a yearly contract and payment to the village, while Ghent's force is a private fire company that contracts with towns for services. The plan would take years, but would involve setting up a fire district, similar to Austerlitz and Stuyvesant, with taxes to pay for its services, and those costs coming off the budgets of the towns involved. “This could take a number of years,” Howe told the Chatham Village Board. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.