Chaffee police chief leaves hometown for new work

PULLING UP ROOTS

By Bob Miller ~ Southeast Missourian

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Don Cobb, the police chief at Chaffee, could sit in his office at the station, look out the window and see the building where he was born -- only now the building is a workout gym instead of a medical clinic.

He is known in Chaffee as much as an old schoolmate as the chief of police.

And it was only a few months ago when Cobb, 31, returned from National Guard duty in Kosovo. While he was gone the city paid his salary to help his wife and two sons make ends meet.

Given the history between Cobb and Chaffee, he said the decision to resign and take the police chief position in Scott City was difficult.

He's pulling up his roots in favor of career advancement.

"It was probably the best four-and-a-half years I've had in police work," said Cobb, who also worked in Sikeston for four years and has a total of nine years in police work.

Cobb, whose last day as Chaffee police chief was Tuesday, has lived in Scott City for five years and has been commuting to Chaffee to work. He said working in the town where he lives is a bonus, but not the reason he took the job.

"It offers a lot of new challenges and opportunities," he said. "It's a larger department with more responsibility."

Scott City has about 1,500 more residents than Chaffee.

Cobb will not make much more, trading $30,000 in Chaffee for $30,500 in Scott City.

No hard feelings

City officials say there are no hard feelings about Cobb moving on after paying his salary for the six months he was in Kosovo.

"No, that was the council's recommendation and we don't have any regrets about that," said Chaffee mayor Bill Cannon.

Chaffee city administrator John Chadd said he understood Cobb's move.

"You don't ever want to lose an experienced police officer with his background, but we understand this is a better opportunity for him," Chadd said. "It's strictly a situation where he lives in Scott City and evidently they approached him and made a better offer than what we could do. There's no hard feelings."

Some residents don't share that sentiment.

"They paid him all that salary and then he resigned," said Brian Ourth, a Chaffee resident. Ourth said he thought Cobb should pay some money back that he was given while he was in Kosovo.

Others, like Randall Hibdon II who graduated with Cobb, don't feel slighted.

"He did a pretty good job and he's an all-right guy," he said. "He's got to do what he's got to do."

Cobb said he isn't worried about criticism. He said he has left the department in better shape than he found it. Under his leadership, Chaffee started housing prisoners for the Scott County Sheriff's Department. This helped pay for two new police cars.

Cobb said he didn't neglect his police duties while overseas, either. He said he performed half his duties while in Kosovo, preparing budgets and taking care of paperwork. Cobb also said he worked several double shifts without overtime pay after returning to Chaffee.

New challenges

Cobb is replacing Danny Clubb, Scott City's police chief since 1992. The new chief is excited about the opportunities awaiting him in Scott City.

One of the areas where he wants to see improvement is more police involvement with the community.

He said he wants to institute a DARE program to give children education on the effects of drugs.

"I think it's important to gain the trust of children," Cobb said. "I'd like us to have a school resource officer. That puts a police officer in front of the children in a non-confrontational role as someone other than the enemy."

Ron Eskew, Scott City's city administrator, previously worked with Cobb as city administrator in Chaffee.

"He was a good officer and I was glad to see him apply here," Eskew said. "We had 11 applicants, we interviewed four and Chief Cobb fit what we were looking for best of all. I know he's tenacious and he'll stay with the job until it's done."

Chadd said the city has already received applications to fill its chief position.

He said the city will stop taking applications on Aug. 9

In the meantime, the city council will appoint someone within 60 to 90 days and David Ivester will serve as interim police chief until someone is appointed, Chadd said.

bmiller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127