MACHIAS – A Texas law enforcement specialist with Washington County roots has been selected as the town’s next chief of police.

Grady Dwelley, 55, of Waco, Texas, starts Nov. 12 as head of the town’s four-officer department.

He was chosen from among seven applicants by selectmen at their Oct. 16 meeting. Four of the applicants were interviewed, according to Town Manager Christine Therrien.

“I’m coming home,” Dwelley said by phone from Texas, where he works in administration for a Waco hospital emergency room.

“Machias is 40 miles from where I was born and raised in Baileyville,” he said.

Dwelley’s salary will be $30,000, Therrien said.

Dwelley’s appointment returns a chief to a town that has had trouble retaining police chiefs in recent years.

Harold Prescott Sr.’s last day was Sept. 12 after resigning Sept. 8. A Machias native and once the Washington County sheriff, he had served 10 months as the Machias chief.

Prescott had replaced Stephen Ramsey, who resigned in September 2002 to take a one-year position as an international police adviser in Bosnia. Ramsey had asked selectmen for a leave of absence, but was denied that request.

Officer Jason Scott has been handling the duties of chief since Prescott’s departure.

“I can’t wait for [Dwelley] to come on board. Our schedule will be better, that’s for sure,” Scott said. “It will be like normal again.”

Scott himself has been promoted to sergeant, effective immediately. With two years in Machias, Scott is the department’s senior officer.

Working short-handed, the Machias Police Department has handled 62 complaints in October so far. There were 85 complaints in September, according to town records.

“I’m looking forward to getting there,” Dwelley said. “I know, as a four-man department, it is well thought of. I consider it a compliment to be chosen to head the department.”

Dwelley’s career as a police officer took him from Baileyville to Calais to Old Town, then the University of Maine campus in Orono.

He has spent all but two of the past 22 years in Texas, going there initially as an officer with the Odessa city police. He returned to Maine in 1997 for two years with the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department in Bangor before a job offer in jail management pulled him back to Texas. After a stint as a private investigator there, he has been working as an emergency room administrator since January.

Dwelley’s wife, Lynn, is from Meddybemps. She will look for work in her field as a computer systems analyst.