It’s no secret that the City of Bainbridge and Decatur County have had their problems and disagreements over the years, especially the past two years or so.

There’s a four-inch thick folder with hundreds of pages of legal documents relating to the city and county’s problems at “The Post-Searchlight” office.

Those problems finally culminated into a courtroom for “mediation” this past March, resulting in a legal agreement between the two entities. Looking past the legal jargon, the Service Delivery Agreement says a lot about how the city and county should work together.

It’s incredibly refreshing to see that they finally are trying. The willingness of either side to work with the other to make better decisions for the residents of Bainbridge and Decatur County will be nothing but good for the taxpayers.

It’s refreshing to see city representatives at county meetings, and it’s refreshing to see county representatives not only attend meetings, but address the Bainbridge City Council.

Bainbridge City Manager Chris Hobby and Decatur County Administrator Alan Thomas are working on a way to save both governments money on healthcare costs. It’s complicated and will require a lot of legal help, but we’re just glad they’re trying.

Beyond that, the two are beginning to talk about ways to consolidate some services, utilizing each other’s strengths so citizens get the better service.

In the long run, if managed and maintained correctly, it should save everyone a little money.

If we’re really lucky, we at “The Post-Searchlight” can grow our folder of city-county cooperation documents to be bigger than the one of disagreements.