LINCOLN –– Officials from three of Lincoln’s six fire districts, each with its own fire chief, tax policy and fire equipment, have signaled their intent to move toward consolidating services.

Board officials from the Albion, Lonsdale and Saylesville fire departments will discuss consolidation Monday night, said Michael V. Napolitano, chairman of the Albion Fire District’s Board of Fire Commissioners. . The public meeting is at 7 p.m. at Lincoln Manor on Franklin Street.

“Over the course of these meetings, we — Albion, Saylesville and Lonsdale — pretty much agreed in principle that we were ready to go to the next level,” Napolitano said. “Consolidation — we think there are ways we can save money, for example, one chief instead of one for each district and one tax collector instead of one for each district.”

Fire districts not slated to take part in the meeting are Lime Rock, Manville and Quinnville.

Napolitano said Town Administrator T. Joseph Almond began meeting with representatives from the fire districts about a year ago.

Almond said in October that the districts do an outstanding job, but that “to remain in small neighborhood districts no longer makes sense. It doesn’t make sense economically. It’s a lot of redundant services. It creates a lot of unequal tax obligations.” He also argued that fire-district taxes may impede some businesses from locating in town.

The Lime Rock Fire District has not joined in the move toward consolidation. James Isherwood, chairman of Lime Rock’s board of commissioners, said, “We’re not ignoring it … it has been consistently on our agenda.” He said Lime Rock representatives, including himself, had attended some meetings with Almond about the districts.

Lime Rock covers 54 percent of the town, Isherwood said, bigger than the other districts combined. He believes some of the other districts may be too small to sustain themselves and have “significant long-term debt.”

While Napolitano talked of some form of consolidation taking perhaps one to three years, Isherwood spoke of it as something that might be up to 10 years away.

Isherwood questioned whether one municipal department would be cost effective, saying that some towns with one department see high overtime costs.

But an uprising by Lime Rock taxpayers at this year’s annual district financial meeting didn’t agree that the current system is cost-effective, and there were heated battles and questions over whether Lime Rock and the multi-district system is necessary.

But keeping the district independent had many supporters, too, and the budget and the district’s board of commissioners survived unchanged.

mmckinne@projo.com