Our communities will lose their local flavors and identities.

Fact:   Did either Saugatuck or Douglas lose their identity when they chose not to have two separate fire departments? Or two separate police departments?  Or two different historical societies?  Or two separate libraries? Or two water and sewer departments?  Of course not.  Nobody's longing for the days when each town had its own fire trucks, however quaint that might have been. In each case, consolidating these traditional municipal functions actually improved service and saved money.   In each case, one was better than two, so the citizens all gained. 

Communities get their local flavor and identities from their people, their geography, their churches, their businesses, and their attractions, not from their governments.  Consolidation will change none of that.  What consolidation will change is the inherent inefficiency in having two governments with duplicated "headquarters" functions (as well as two completely equipped public works functions) and the expense of all that for a total of just 2,100 residents.