PALMER — A slate of initiatives with implications for fire service in the Mat-Su Borough’s northern reaches passed handily Tuesday.

The first, an initiative merging the Big Lake and Meadow Lakes fire departments into one department, passed with a combined total in the two districts of 627 voting in favor of the merger and 454 opposed, according to the Borough’s preliminary vote tallies.

Even farther north, the Caswell Lakes area voted 64-9 to give itself a fire service area. Caswell has long been a hole in the Borough’s fire protection, with fire departments to the north in Talkeetna and to the south in Willow. “That’s wonderful,” the Borough’s director of Emergency Services Dennis Brodigan said late Tuesday night when informed of the result. “Last I saw only 14 percent of the results were in, but it was tracking in the right direction.”

The merger elicited a small amount of controversy last week when Houston Fire Chief Tom Hood was spotted handing out pamphlets opposed to the merger. Local fire chiefs denounced the pamphlets as riddled with lies and inaccuracies.

Brodigan said, as he has in the past, that the merger is the right move — it will allow for cost savings in economies of scale as redundant positions are omitted and will hopefully bolster the combined department’s rating with the Insurance Services Organization, which rates fire departments for home owner insurance companies.

“I think, as everyone will see, the unification is going to bring all those things,” Brodigan said.

The creation of the Caswell Lakes fire department, Brodigan said in previous meetings, will, in the immediate future, allow Borough firefighters to respond to the area, something they’ve been unable to do until now. In the long term, Brodigan sees a fire station going up and a cadre of firefighters recruited to staff it.

“I think the Caswell Lakes area has gone far too long with out a fire service area, so it’s going to be wonderful news for the folks who own property up in that area,” he said.