An artist's pride never retires

Warwick — Who says you can’t go home again? Jim Carton, a former Warwick Police Officer and middle school teacher travels down from the Syracuse area fairly often to visit with his old colleagues. For some members of the Warwick Police Department, though, Carton has never really left, even though he retired and moved away nearly a decade ago. There is a big reminder of Carton every time they enter the station. Carton crafted the Warwick Police Department sign way back in March 1980 when he was a member of the Village of Warwick Police Department. There was only a tiny sign at the time for the police department. Woodworking has always been one of Carton’s hobbies so he made this new sign, complete with the New York State coat of arms, including the goddesses of Liberty and Justice, to hang outside of the Village Hall. When the town and village police departments were merged in 1991, Carton made his first edits, changing “village” to “town” and adding 911 at the bottom when originally it had 1311, the old village police phone number. Carton recently took on the sign again, this time to refurbish it. “Jim happened to be here one day in July,” said Warwick police Chief Thomas McGovern. “He stopped in to say hello. But he looked at the sign and said it’s getting pretty beat up.” So Carton took the bulky sign home with him and worked on it in between traveling with his wife, Joan, and visits with his grandkids. Last week, he brought it back, even better than new. The colors are vibrant again but the charm is still there. Something was definitely different. “This time, I made justice blind,” said Carton, who 27 years ago left the blindfold off. Now the sign will be just inside the door of the refurbished station, safe from the elements, but there for everyone to see.