WAUWATOSA (CBS 58) -- The question of whether the Wauwatosa and West Allis Fire Departments should merge remains, with around 14 million dollars of potential savings on the line.

To help answer that question for residents, Wauwatosa followed West Allis's steps holding an open house for residents about what this merger would mean for both cities.

"At this time, we think it’s the best option," said Jim Case, the Chief with the Wauwatosa Fire Department

"This is the next step for us to go forward,” said Jason Schaak, the Interim Chief with the West Allis Fire Department when asked at West Allis's open house meeting earlier this month.

With both the West Allis and Wauwatosa Fire Departments feeling financial strains, both fire chiefs say merging the two departments is the right move.

"While it's not going to be easy, I truly believe this is the right direction for both departments to go," said Chief Case. "We've been facing budgetary challenges every year for the last probably 15 years and we are slowly reducing that level of service we can provide to our citizens."

The West Allis Common Council voted to move forward in the planning process earlier this month and now Wauwatosa is asking their residents what they think of the proposal before they vote.

"If they say they can pull this off with the same quality and save money, it's obviously the right thing to do," said Wauwatosa resident, Pete Donegan.

A third-party study showed with the merger, response times would remain and may even improve. That’s in addition to the estimated seven million dollars each community would save over the next five years. Something the Chief Case says is needed.

"We already know for next year's budget we have some budget reductions we have to make," said Chief Case. "We are eliminating at least one more firefighter position next year for Wauwatosa, if not two and that will just continue to happen if we can't get this merger to occur."

With both departments underfunded, the city says the proposed joint department could increase taxes and would be allowed to increase its budget two percent plus inflation each year.

While in the early planning stages, Chief Case says there is still a lot to work out.

"Currently the firefighters work different schedules, different union contracts, everything like that are things we have to get through and work through, but we wouldn’t even try taking this on if we didn’t think it could get there," said Chief Case.

Tuesday, Sept. 23, there will be a Wauwatosa Government Affairs meeting with public comments on the merger.