Paula White
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 09/98) - One flat tire? No problem. Two? A pain in the neck, but that's life. Three flat tires? Something fishy's going on.

But, six flat tires in less than three weeks? That's a little too much for Michelle Skiffington.

"I'm getting really tired of this," she said. "It's very frustrating."

Skiffington, who drives a 1997 Chev Malibu, began having tire problems around Nov. 19. Her right rear tire went flat, so she took it to Yellowknife Motors to be repaired. She was told her tire was punctured by a sharp rock from the gravel mix used on the city streets. She had to replace the tire with her spare.

A few days later, Skiffington was back with a flat spare thanks to another sharp rock. In fact, the spare went flat for the same reason a total of three times that week. She ended up ordering a brand new tire, making do with a dummy in the meantime.

The dummy, however, didn't survive either. It went flat too. And the most recent flat - number six - occurred Dec. 7, in Skiffington's brand new tire. So far, she has spent about $230.

Yellowknifer Ian Henderson has had his share of flat tires as well. He had a total of four within three days.

"Every time I came home I had a flat tire, it seemed," Henderson said. "It's just been crazy."

Gary Craig, the city's director of public works and engineering, has received a number of complaints about the gravel. He said the city buys it from one of four companies that bid for the contract each year. This year's supplier is RTL Robinson Enterprises Ltd. Ace Enterprises Ltd. supplied the gravel last year.

"I don't recall any reports of flat tires last year," Craig said. He added the city has enough gravel stockpiled to last until January 2000.

"Right now, we're pretty much stuck with the gravel we have."

In the meantime, repair shops have been working overtime to fix the flat tires.

"In the last few weeks, it seems we've had quite a run on flat tires," said Yellowknife Motors Ltd. service manager Laramie Paul. "Lots of unhappy customers, especially when they have to buy a new one (tire)."

Grizzly Motors had to put an extra staff on tire duty.

"The gravel does seem to be a lot sharper," said owner Lorie Simmons.

Ken Pich, owner of Westown Tire Service Ltd, estimated that his employees were fixing about 20 flats a day. He said between 75 and 80 per cent of those are caused by the gravel on the streets.