JAY/RANGELEY — Rangeley Town Manager Joe Roach announced at Monday’s Select Board meeting that he has hired Richard Caton IV of Wilton as the full-time police chief. He will start on Aug. 5, be paid $94,000 to start and $100,000 per year after the first six months.

Jay Police Chief Richard Caton IV of Wilton smiles Monday night during the Jay Select Board meeting. His resignation was accepted Monday, the same day he was hired as police chief for Rangeley. He has been with Jay for about 20 years, including chief for 10 years. Donna M. Perry/Sun Journal

Rangeley will advertise for three full-time officers. The town is paying overtime to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office to provide coverage.

The town received three applications for chief. An interview committee and Roach conducted initial interviews before Caton was hired. He plans to commute to work from his Wilton home.

Caton has been interim police chief in Rangeley since late March after Russell French resigned Feb. 13. Caton was hired to work 16 to 20 hours a week to make sure Rangeley’s policies were in place and compliant with state and federal laws.

At the same time, Caton, 43, continued his full-time duties in Jay.

The Jay Select Board accepted his resignation Monday afternoon, with regret. His last day is Aug. 3.

“It is a very hard decision to make,” Caton said after the meeting.

“The town of Jay has been very fortunate to have had Richard Caton as our chief of police,” Jay Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere said. “His honesty and integrity make him a respected leader in his department, in this community and in the police profession. He will be greatly missed. We wish him the best in his new position and thank him for his dedication to Jay over the past 10 years.”

Caton has been in law enforcement for over 20 years. He was promoted to chief in October 2014 after Larry White Sr. died Oct. 5, 2014, of pancreatic cancer. Caton served as acting chief since February 2014.

Under his guidance, the Jay Police Department was the first law enforcement agency in Franklin County to become accredited by the Maine Chiefs of Police Association in 2022.

Caton initially started with the Jay Police Department as a patrolman in 2003 and then served as a detective. He joined the Wilton Police Department in 2008 and became lieutenant. He returned to Jay two years later as a detective before he was hired as police chief.

A military veteran, he was recognized by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine in 2013 for his “outstanding contribution” and presented with the National Crime Victims Rights Week 2013 Law Enforcement Award.

The award stemmed from Caton having one lead in a case involving 19 stolen guns from a Jay residence, and he recovered the guns within 24 hours in January 2012. He was commended for conducting an “expeditious investigation” and keeping the 19 guns, including 10 semiautomatic weapons, out of the hands of others.

Special Agent Christopher Durkin of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also received the award for his work on the Jay case.

Caton comes from a law enforcement background. His father, the late Richard Caton III, was Farmington police chief for several years, and his mother, Melinda, was supervisor of the Franklin County Dispatch Center until she retired. Caton’s twin brother, Brock Caton. of Farmington is the director of public safety/chief of police of the University of Maine at Farmington’s Department of Public Safety.

Richard Caton had initially planned to be a game warden, he said.

“I went into college, not in a law enforcement field. I was undecided until I talked to a criminal justice professor,” he said 11 years ago.

It was the thought of talking about crime scenes and processing them that had him leaning toward becoming a warden, he said. After an internship with the Maine Warden Service, Caton said, he decided he would rather not work at what he loved to do, hunt and fish.

He grew up in Strong, attended Mt. Abram High School in Salem Township and graduated from the University of Maine at Presque Isle with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

He and his wife, Sarah, have three sons.

Caton also served in the Maine National Guard.