CHIEF: BLEDSOE WILL DIRECT POLICE IN CHAFFEE

CHAFFEE -- Chaffee has a new police chief, beginning later this month.

The new chief is Jerry Bledsoe, former Scott County Sheriff's Department chief deputy. He is now field operations manager for Wolsey Investigative Service Inc. in Chaffee.

Bledsoe replaces ex-police Chief Ivan McLain, who resigned last month following nearly nine years in the position.

Bledsoe, 36, said the Chaffee City Council approved him as police chief Wednesday night at the recommendation of the city's Police Commission. He will start his new job about Jan. 20, he said.

Bledsoe said he left the sheriff's department in 1990 after working there 16 years. Eight of those years he worked as chief deputy, he said. He then went to work for the U.S. Justice Department's Federal Bureau of Prisons for about a year before coming to Wolsey Investigative Service, he said, where he has also worked about a year.

Though he has enjoyed working at the investigative service, he said, he is looking forward to getting back into law enforcement.

"It's kind of like a disease. It just gets into your blood and it's there," he said.

Wolsey, who is the council's liaison to the Police Commission, said the only comment he could make would be to say that he hated to lose Bledsoe and had tried to keep him with his business.

"I tried a last-ditch effort (Wednesday) before I closed the office for the evening. It's the city's gain and my loss, because he is an excellent individual."

Wolsey said he abstained from all voting on the employment of Bledsoe.

Attempts Thursday to reach either Chaffee Mayor Ron Moyers and the head of the Police Commission were unsuccessful. Commission member Fred Halbert declined comment, referring a reporter to the commission's head, Kenneth Davie.

Moyers declined to say how many candidates sought the police chief position or where they were from.

Ward 3 Councilman Ron Eskew said Bledsoe will be on probation in the position for a year. "We are hoping that he will be a good police chief and we will know after a year's course. But he was the best candidate."

Bledsoe came to the sheriff's department in July 1974 after leaving the Sikeston Police Department, where he worked as a reserve officer. Bledsoe said he became involved with the police department while in high school as one of the first members of the Sikeston Police Cadet Program.

Later, he said, he became a dispatcher at the department.

He now lives in Benton, but said he is sure he will eventually move to the Chaffee area.

In open session Wednesday, the council rejected a $2,500 bid on the city's emergency preparedness truck, said City Clerk Diane Eftink. Eftink said she was told the bid came from Hacker Plumbing of Cape Girardeau.

Eftink said the council also reappointed Chaffee resident Dewaine Shaffer to the Chaffee Housing Board.