THREE CANDIDATES COMPETE FOR SHERIFF IN BOLLINGER COUNTY

MARBLE HILL - If Jimmie G. Bollinger is elected Bollinger County sheriff, don't look for him to fight for extra funding for the tightly budgeted sheriff's department.

It just isn't going to happen, he says.

"I would work with less deputies and save the county money that way," Bollinger, an independent candidate for the post and a former Cape Girardeau labor union official, said Wednesday. "There are too many deputies. You could just rearrange them and do with less."

A Marble Hill native and current resident, Bollinger is one of three candidates vying for sheriff in a special election Tuesday. Bollinger, 59, filed April 9 to run in the election, according to a spokeswoman with the Bollinger County clerk's office.

The other candidates are Republican Dan Mesey and Democratic candidate Kindal Ward.

Mesey, who lives in Glen Allen, is a part-time investigator with the sheriff's department and a 23-year veteran of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, where he worked as a detective before retiring in August 1988.

Ward is the department's acting chief deputy and a Zalma native.

For about nine years starting in 1977, Bollinger said, he served as the business agent for the local union of Laborers International in Cape Girardeau. Prior to that, for about a year in the late 1960s, he worked as the sole policeman in Marble Hill and the former city of Lutesville, he said. He has also worked in the construction business.

Today, Bollinger said, he sells used cars and does a little contracting work.

The election is being held to replace former Sheriff Januar Peters. Peters resigned in March after being charged with felony stealing. State auditors said he had misappropriated at least $5,269 in county funds, with nearly $5,150 ending up in his personal account.

Bollinger said he didn't want to discuss the internal affairs of the sheriff's department and how many deputies should be dismissed, but he said there are a lot of complaints from the public that the department has too many deputies. His goal, he said, is to get back to the basics of small-town law enforcement and develop a closer relationship with the county's residents.

The use of penitentiary time as a deterrent to criminal activity is not working, Bollinger claimed. Instead, Bollinger said he thinks today's young people need to be brought up to respect the law, and he said he feels he can help to instill that trait in them.

Bollinger took issue with both the Republican and Democratic candidates, charging that Ward used his position with the sheriff's department to harass motorists over small traffic violations, such as failure to use a seat belt.

"He (Ward) puts up his own little roadblocks and does that. I don't think we need this type of thing in Bollinger County," he said.

But Ward said he had never set up a roadblock and didn't understand what Bollinger meant by saying he harassed people.

"In the course of doing your job, you have many duties, and I do do my job," he said. "And as far as seat belt tickets the folks can look in court records and see how many seat belt tickets I've written."

As for Mesey, Bollinger said the county has no need for a sheriff with all the law enforcement experience the Republican candidate has.

Mesey could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Bollinger said the county doesn't need the same type of law enforcement that a metropolitan area does.

"We don't have any hostage situations here. We haven't had any bank robberies here, to speak of. We don't have any kidnappings here.

"I think we just need a law officer with good common sense," he said.