Officials from the City of Miamisburg and Miami Township voted to combine the municipalities' fire departments at a special meeting Wednesday night.

The department will be known as the "Miami Valley Joint Fire District" is expected to begin handling calls in March 2012 after five years of planning. In the mean time, the trustees that will govern the new department will hire a chief and begin construction on a new station south of downtown Miamisburg.

Even though the area will have one less station operating under the new plan, all firefighters from both departments will keep their job.

"It's a change, it's something new," current Miami Township Fire Chief Matthew Queen said. "But we'll face every challenge that we have."

Only Miamisburg City Council member Sarah Clark voted against the proposal but hopes the new department is a success for the taxpayers' sake.

"In spite of my no vote, I am looking forward to this being a success," Clark said. "I'm sure that it will be. I just couldn't, in good faith, support something that had such little tax payer oversight"

Officials said that by combining the departments, better response times to incidents will actually save residents money on their property insurance.