SKI MISSOURI?: COUNCILMAN CONCERNED BY A PROMOTION FOR CITY

Cape Girardeau Convention & Visitors Bureau posters and postcards depicting a man on skis in a snowless farm field has prompted criticism from a city councilman.

Councilman Al Spradling III raised the issue at Monday evening's council study session. He said he felt the promotional items portrayed Cape Girardeau in poor light.

The drawing by Cape Girardeau artist Mark Farmer depicts the bespectacled artist wearing a cowboy hat, smoking a pipe, chewing on an alfalfa-like stalk, and skiing either uphill or backwards. Several mules are in the background.

On the posters and postcards are the words: "Ski Missouri" and "Convention & Visitors Bureau, Cape Girardeau."

The back of the postcards lists the bureau's address and telephone number.

"I think promoting that type of image of Missouri is certainly not in our best interest," Spradling told his fellow councilmen.

"Maybe some people think we're hayseeds, but I don't think it is an image we want to promote for Cape Girardeau," he said.

He pointed out that Missouri has one or two ski operations and they don't look like "a cow pasture."

Spradling said he was surprised to learn that such promotional items had been distributed by the city's tourism bureau.

Mayor Gene Rhodes echoed Spradling's concern. "I think that is the wrong impression for the public."

Spradling and fellow council members said they would ask Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) officials for an explanation.

Lyn Muzzy, director of the tourism bureau, could not be reached for comment Monday night.

But Robert Hendrix, president of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, which operates the tourism bureau under a contract with the city, said the promotional items were developed as a joke two or three years ago.

He recalled that the posters and postcards were drawn up for a meeting. He said he could not remember any specifics about the meeting. "It was supposed to be a joke," he said.