by Marty Brown
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 21/97) - You can buy a Ragged Ass Road sign at the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce for $29.

But at a recent fund-raising auction in Edmonton, an unnamed bidder paid $1,300.

Of course, it was autographed by Canadian rocker Tom Cochrane, who named his latest album after the Yellowknife street.

Cochrane isn't the only person who likes the name. About eight years ago the city of Yellowknife got tired of replacing the signs stolen by tourists and ordered 300 from an Edmonton manufacturing company.

Since then, Cheryl Best, the executive director for the city Chamber of Commerce, says she sells about 1,000 Ragged Ass Road signs a year.

In fact she sold 250 to EMI Records, the company that records Cochrane. All are autographed and distributed rarely and thoughtfully to fans she said.

"I don't have an autographed sign myself," said Best. But now she's seriously thinking of sending Cochrane a bunch and asking if he'd autograph them.