OLD CABIN MAY SLOW JAIL EXPANSION

JACKSON -- A Cape Girardeau County crew that started clearing a driveway may end up working on a historical find.

Under provisions of a $1.5 million jail expansion grant, the county is required to perform several studies on the property around the jail in downtown Jackson. County commissioners purchased and intended to raze a house at 220 N. Missouri, clearing a path to the property.

Jackson resident Joe Haupt found out about the plans and visited the County Commission on Thursday. He said the house was built around a two-room log cabin constructed during the Civil War, perhaps the last one left standing in Jackson.

Haupt grew up just down the street from the house, and his friends were members of the Poe family. It was common knowledge that the Poes' house was once a tiny log cabin, he said.

Jackson insurance agent Bill Poe agreed. His parents moved into the house around 1914, well after a bedroom and kitchen had been added on the back and weatherboard nailed around the entire structure. Poe was born there in 1926.

People lived in the house until several weeks ago. Poe said he didn't think much about his old home until his sister called to tell him it was being demolished. Now he would like to see the log cabin portion preserved.

So would Haupt, and he suggested the commission have it disassembled and then rebuilt at one of the county parks.

Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said that was a possibility.

"It is a simple matter," he said. "We told the building-and-grounds guy to go out there next week, rip off a few boards and see if there's a cabin underneath that house."

Asbestos already has been removed from the house at county expense. If a cabin is inside, Jones said, a local historical group will be asked to number the pieces and then oversee the rebuilding at County Park.

"It might just be an old building that we tear down," he said. "If not, it will slow progress down."

The jail expansion process can't move too quickly anyway, Jones said. After an environmental analysis of the site is completed, the County Commission must find an additional $2.5 million in the budget to finance the total expansion.

A house on North High Street and a metal building owned by the sheriff's department also will have to be torn down if construction begins on the jail.

Sheriff John Jordan said he expects news on building plans in the next year or later.

"The commissioners and I are working on a plan to do this expansion without a bond issue or a tax increase," he said.

Jordan said that once the jail expansion is open, the county will net about $250,000 a year housing federal prisoners awaiting trial.