MAYORS CHOOSE TO ATTEND FOOTBALL GAME OVER DINNER

Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III and Jackson Mayor Paul Sander won't be wining and dining with state highway officials tonight. Instead, they will be among the expected crowd of 10,000 for the annual football clash between Cape Girardeau Central and Jackson high schools.

The mayors regularly attend the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's annual highway dinner. But this year the football game was scheduled for the same night.

Both Spradling and Sander said they couldn't be no-shows at the game. The mayors, as in past years, have a friendly wager over the outcome of the game. The losing mayor must wear the other team's colors at the next council meeting."This is our fourth year of doing it," said Sander, who last year had to don an orange sweatshirt after Central's victory. Spradling has twice had to wear Jackson's school colors.

Spradling has more than a passing interest in the game: His son, Alex, is a center on the Cape Girardeau football squad."One of the reasons I never had aspirations for state politics is so that I could be at home when the kids are doing stuff," he said.

John Mehner, Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce president, said the highway dinner was scheduled long before the football schedule appeared. The highway dinner annually is held on the first Thursday of November. The chamber invites the state's highway commissioners to the dinner every year. From time to time the invitation is accepted.

The commission last convened in Cape Girardeau in November 1995. The commission is scheduled to meet Friday at the Show Me Center.

The commissioners are expected to attend the Thursday night dinner. Henry Hungerbeeler, director of the Missouri Transportation Department, is the featured speaker.

Mehner said the chamber considered canceling the dinner after learning that it conflicted with the football game. "But we already invited the commission," he said.

The chamber has tried to accommodate the game by starting the dinner at an earlier hour.

The dinner at the Drury Lodge will begin at 5:15 p.m. with a social time, followed by dinner at 6 p.m. Hungerbeeler is scheduled to speak at 6:45 p.m. Mehner said the MoDOT director is expected to speak for about 10 to 15 minutes.

The event should conclude around 7 p.m., allowing dinner patrons to get to Houck Stadium for the game if they choose, he said.

Even with the scheduling conflict, Mehner said more people are scheduled to attend the highway dinner this year than last year. Some 200 people are expected to attend the dinner compared to about 150 a year ago.