MCLAIN QUITS AS POLICE CHIEF

CHAFFEE -- Chaffee Police Chief Ivan McLain has resigned and is eying a possible campaign next year for Cape Girardeau County sheriff, a job he once held for more than 10 years.

McLain, 61, said he submitted a letter of resignation Thursday night at a Chaffee Police Commission meeting and will move to the Cape Girardeau area. The resignation took effect immediately, ending McLain's nearly nine-year tenure as Chaffee police chief.

The Scott County Sheriff's Department is overseeing the city police department while a new police chief is being sought.

No ill feelings preceded the resignation, said McLain, who has worked for more than 30 years in law enforcement.

"It's my doing," he said of his resignation. "I've enjoyed myself down here. I've been in law enforcement a long time, and it just feels good to hang my gun on the wall."

McLain said he needed for the resignation to take effect immediately because, in order to run for sheriff, he must establish residency in Cape Girardeau County by the end of the year.

"I've have been encouraged to pursue it and I'm looking at the possibility." That encouragement came from many people, both friends and some in law enforcement, he said.

McLain served as Cape Girardeau County sheriff from 1966 to 1977.

To be eligible to run for sheriff a person must have resided in the county for a year and must be a voter and taxpayer, a spokeswoman with the Cape Girardeau County clerk's office said. A primary election for the position will be held in August, with the general election following in November, the spokeswoman said.

Norman Copeland, a Republican, is Cape County sheriff. McLain, a Republican when he served as sheriff, declined to say which party he might file on. He said his options are open.

The man who preceded McLain as Chaffee police chief, Ward 1 Councilman Jerry Wolsey, the council's liaison to the Police Commission, said he hated to see McLain resign. He said he's known McLain since his childhood days in Cape Girardeau, when McLain worked as a Cape Girardeau police officer.

"When you say Ivan McLain you say law enforcement," said Wolsey, police chief from 1981 to February 1983, and the owner of Wolsey Investigative Service Inc. in Chaffee. "I've always known Ivan McLain as my policeman.

Mayor Ron Moyers said McLain's departure was "rather abrupt, but that's something we all get used to."

"He left under good terms. He gave us the information that he was searching for future endeavors...." That was all McLain said, said Moyers.

The city began advertising for a new police chief Monday, Moyers said. Applications will be taken until Dec. 18.

Moyers said, realistically, the city would probably have a new police chief after the first of the year, by the time background checks and other matters are dealt with.

"I don't think it's one of those things where someone's going to jump out of the woodwork at us," he said. "Usually, replacing someone as important as the chief takes a little while."

McLain said he worked at the Cape Girardeau Police Department from 1955 to 1966, rising from a motorcycle policeman to a detective sergeant. Before becoming Chaffee police chief, McLain sold real estate and managed a Rhodes Oil Co. facility on Highway 61 North in Cape Girardeau.

He was first elected to an unexpired two-year term as sheriff following the resignation of former sheriff John Crites, and went on to serve two more terms, he said. Voters did not re-elect him as sheriff, he said, after he became embroiled in a controversy over where the then-new Cape Girardeau County Jail should be built.

McLain favored construction of the jail at the site that is now the home of the Veterans Administration Home at Highway 61 and Interstate 55. The jail was eventually built in Jackson.

McLain said he will be 62 in June and still needs to work about four more years. His options, he said, include going back to selling real estate or working part time in security, possibly with Wolsey's business.

He and his wife, Betty, would reside at Jackson Route 3, said McLain. Betty McLain owned Betty's Florist in Chaffee, which closed three or four months ago, he said. An auction will be held this Saturday to sell the store's shelves and counters and other miscellaneous items.

Scott County Sheriff's Deputy Jim Chambers said from the Chaffee Police Department Monday that the sheriff's department is only overseeing the police department during its transition to a new chief.

"All I'm doing here is checking on their basic functions. They're running their show basically themselves," he said.