NARRAGANSETT — The town’s top wage earners in 2006 can be sorted into three groups: Town Hall administrators, police officers and firefighters.

That much is clear.

The story of how some of those people got there is a little more complicated.

The first thing that stands out about the list of Narragansett’s top-10 wage earners for that year is the name at the top.

Maurice J. Loontjens, the longtime town manager, had a salary of about $86,000 when he died, in October 2006. The figure was too low to make the town’s top 10 list, but Loontjens’ death that fall resulted in a lump-sum payment for unused sick and vacation time, pushing him to the top with gross pay of $129,083.

Such are the anomalies that can surface in an analysis of gross pay.

If Loontjens were not on the list, the highest-paid employee would be Fire Capt. Byron Cahoone Jr.

While Cahoone’s base pay in 2006 was about $52,000, he grossed $116,181.

Like three other firefighters on the list, Cahoone worked many extra hours to get there, sometimes more than 40 hours in overtime in a single week, he said, as well as many holidays.

He said a retirement and an injury meant lots of overtime was available during 2006.

“It doesn’t happen every year,” he said.

The Providence Journal compiled the list as part of a statewide look at school and municipal payroll spending during calendar-year 2006. Figures were provided by local town and school officials in response to requests under the state’s Open Records Law.

The Journal’s analysis looks at gross pay — the total amount paid to employees before taxes are deducted, including base salary or wages, and other “extras,” such as overtime, stipends, severance packages and additional pay for holding more than one job.

After Cahoone, the other firefighters on the list are Lt. John P. Stone, at $92,083; Firefighter Michael R. Limoges, $90,615; and Firefighter John J. Flint Jr., at $90,507.

If the list contained 11 names, Fire Chief James J. Cotter would be on it, with gross pay of $89,851, but Cotter, like other fire chief, and like police chiefs, does not receive overtime pay.

Cotter said overtime is a constant reality, however, with the department’s required staffing levels. Narragansett has 32 firefighters (in addition to the chief and the fire marshal) and four shifts to fill, each of which must be staffed with eight firefighters.

“If we don’t have eight we have to hire overtime,” he said.

The town studied the matter about three years ago, weighing the cost of overtime against the cost of hiring more firefighters and concluded the existing staffing level was best, said Town Manager Jeffry Ceasrine.

Ceasrine and Cotter declined to give their views on the matter, saying their comments could jeopardize negotiations with firefighters on a new contract.

The Police Department has three employees on the list: Detective Lt. Gerald D. Driscoll, at $104,701; Lt. Jared P. Randall, at $92,761; and Chief J. David Smith, at $91,562.

Smith, who resigned last year to become director of public safety at Roger Williams University, received no overtime, but Driscoll and Randall worked extra hours to reach their figures, said Joseph T. Little Jr., who succeeded Smith as chief.

Little said the overtime can take different forms in the Police Department. Often it means extra hours on weekend or evening shifts. During the warmer months, the weekend shifts can include boat patrols on Point Judith Pond and the Narrow River, some of them covered by a federal grant.

The department also has weekend party patrols, some of which have also been covered by grants, he said.

Officers also work details, some for the town and some for private contractors, who pay the cost even though the numbers show up in town pay figures.

Sometimes the overtime simply goes with the position. Driscoll, now a captain, said he was head of the department’s detectives in 2006, a job that tends to come with many extra hours during investigations.

After Loontjens, the top-10 list includes two Town Hall administrators: David L. Krugman, the town’s finance director, and Ceasrine, the town engineer and, after Loontjens’ death, the acting town manager.

Krugman, hired as finance director in 1987, had gross pay of $92,580. He retired last year and is now the part-time treasurer in Richmond.

Ceasrine grossed $101,945, but this includes his $85,650 salary as town engineer and additional pay he received for serving as acting town manager, starting in October 2006.

He was formally appointed to the manager’s post last April and still serves as town engineer, though the town has since hired an assistant engineer. His pay is now $95,000, less than he made in 2006.

redgar@projo.com