by Nancy Gardiner
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 29/97) - Grandma Lee's restaurant, located in Yellowknife's Centre Square Mall, closed its doors last Monday because it ran short on staff.

"The main reason Monday was our last day of operation was we ran into a severe staff shortage. We need eight full-time staff but we went down to three full-time and we couldn't find replacement staff," said Gail Leonardis, one of the owners.

Leonardis said a few job applicants applied for the vacancies, but it didn't work out since many could not be reached.

"It was not an easy decision," said Leonardis.

Gail and her husband Louis ran the business in the Centre Square Mall for the past 14 months.

Leonardis said the franchiser -- Grandma Lee's Western Inc. -- might come in to run the business. However, Jim Timmons, president of Grandma Lee's Western Inc. in Alberta, was not available for comment.