The Dane County Board of Supervisors unamiously approved a merger of city and county health departments Thursday night.
Officials tell NBC 15 they will adopt an inter-governmental agreement, which is the first concrete step toward one unified department.
The Madison Common Council adopted the same agreement in January.
The merger has been ten years in the making. Supervisor David Blaska championed the cause, which outlasted some of the orginal sponsors who are no longer on the board.
Blaska says despite some skepticism, he believes the merger will save the county money.
The next step is to fill a director spot for the unified department, which should be up and running in 2007.
