COVENTRY — Last year, proponents of consolidating four of the community’s seven independent fire districts said that the merger would increase efficiency and save money.

They apparently were right.

The Central Coventry Fire District — created by the merger of the Central Coventry, Harris, Tiogue and Washington districts — closed out its first fiscal year on Aug. 31 with a $25,000 surplus, Chief Robert Seltzer and Girard Bouchard Jr., chairman of the new district’s board of directors, announced yesterday.

“We came in under in spending,” Seltzer said in announcing that the district had stayed within its $4-million operating budget to support a force of 38 salaried firefighters and 10 call firefighters who are paid per response. “We had a good year.”

For the year that began Sept. 1, the district’s tax rate for residential property is $1.57 per $1,000 of assessed value; for commercial property it is $3.14 per $1,000. In both cases it represents a 7-cent rate increase, Seltzer said.

“All four [former] fire districts, according to their projected budgets … would have been above $1.65 for residential,” he said. Tiogue alone was looking at a residential tax rate of $1.86 per $1,000 of assessed value, he said

Seltzer said much of the savings came from consolidation on a number of levels — administration, insurance plans, utilities — and the new district was able to sell apparatus that was no longer needed.

“Our Blue Cross went down. Our phone bills were cut in half. When we started looking at all of that, there was real savings,” Seltzer said.

Central Coventry now has a large fleet including four engines, a ladder truck, three rescue trucks, two squad trucks, a dive-team truck, a reserve engine, a reserve rescue truck, a support car, three administrative vehicles, one marine boat, three inflatable rescue boats, an incident command trailer and a fire prevention trailer.

The fire district sold duplicate equipment, such as pickup trucks, netting $6,000.

Also, the district received two grants, totaling $11,400, from the U.S. Fire Administration, Department of Homeland Security, to buy two thermal-imaging cameras, and a $26,000 federal grant that was used to buy an underwater camera system for the dive team.

There had been a number of critics of the consolidation of districts. The most outspoken was Stanley Mruk, who retired in June of last year at age 80, after more than four decades as chief of the Anthony district. His successor as chief, Robert W. Warren, has expressed interest in joining the consolidated district.

The Western Coventry and Hopkins Hill districts also opted against joining the merger.

Seltzer said the first few months of the consolidated operation did include a few “speed bumps” while what he characterized as “four different cultures” adapted to one another’s way of doing things — something as simple as how a piece of fire apparatus was parked, for example.

The fire district is developing a strategic master plan to help steer its future course, he said.

lsparks@projo.com